Headlights factor in IIHS safety picks
Fifteen cars, SUVs earn top honors.
Fifteen cars and SUVs have earned the highest honors from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety despite stiffened requirements for 2018.
After IIHS decided to require better headlights and a solid performance on a new crash test to receive the “Top Safety Pick Plus” designation, only 12 cars and three sport-utility vehicles received the award in the organization’s first round of ratings.
Another 47 vehicles earned “Top Safety Pick” honors. Both lists are likely to grow as more vehicles are evaluated.
IIHS said it has not reviewed all models and may not test every variation but will update rankings throughout 2018.
“Automakers have really come to grips with the fact that safety is an important component of consumer choice, and they are working hard to meet the criteria,” outgoing IIHS president Adrian Lund said. “They want to be known as leaders of safety.”
Lund said new vehicles are safer than ever. Still, even as automakers make significant safety improvements to new vehicles, more people are dying on American roads. Car crash deaths spiked in the U.S. for a second consecutive year in 2016, hitting a nine-year high of 37,461 people in 2016, up 5.6%, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Lund said the improved economy, which has enabled more people to hit the road for jobs and leisure, is a key factor. Distracted driving is also a likely factor to explain the increase.
One positive sign, Lund said, is that automakers are rapidly improving headlights amid growing awareness that vehicles aren’t sufficiently illuminating the roadway to keep drivers and pedestrians safe.
To reflect the need for better headlights overall, IIHS is now requiring automakers to earn a “good” rating when it comes to their beams to receive the Top Safety Pick Plus designation.
“We are seeing a big change” in headlights, Lund said. “In previous years, it really was the designers determining the positioning of headlights. Now, because we’re actually giving some objective ratings of how much light these headlamps put on the road, the engineers are getting more say.”
Overall, Toyota led the industry with 10 vehicles on the Top Safety Pick Plus or Top Safety Pick lists.