The study in which Ford Motor Co. leads all automakers with 16 “top safety picks” among 2009 cars and trucks, is made by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, an institute that works for auto insurers.
Among the factors accounting for the increase: greater use by automakers of seats and head restraints that meet the institute’s safety criteria, wider availability of electronic stability control and expanded installation of side airbags that offer head protection in collisions.
“The sheer number of this year’s winners indicates that automakers have made huge strides to improve crash protection,” said Adrian Lund, the institute’s president.
Second in this top were American Honda Motor Co.’s Honda and Acura brands, with 13 top safety picks, according to the institute’s sayings. The Honda Fit was the first economy car to get the top designation.
Suprisingly or not , Chrysler LLC was the only major automaker without a top pick. Five of their cars would have qualified if they featured better seats and head restraints.
The earn the label of top safety pick, a vehicle must provide good protection for crash dummies in frontal and side-impact crash tests. It must have seats and head restraints favored by the institute to protect occupants in rear-impact crashes and must have electronic stability control.
Front and side impacts are the most serious crashes, but rear-end collisions cause the most injury claims to insurers, the institute said.
You can find the whole list of 72 top safety picks at http://www.iihs.org.
Except of course Chrysler…sad.