More than double 2009 vehicle models earn safety award over 2008 models

Seventy-two vehicles earned the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) Top Safety Pick award for 2009, more than double the number of 2008 recipients and more than three times the number of 2007 winners.
Top Safety Pick recognizes vehicles that do the best job of protecting people in front, side and rear crashes based on good ratings in IIHS tests.
Winners are required to have electronic stability control.
Chrysler is the only major automaker lacking a single Top Safety Pick. Improved head restraints in the Dodge Avenger and Chrysler Sebring, the Sebring convertible, and the Dodge Grand Caravan and Chrysler Town & Country are needed to receive the award, the IIHS says in a release.
Twenty-six other models, including the Smart Fortwo and Toyota Prius, also fell short because of its head restraints.
A 2008 IIHS analysis of insurance claims found that, all other factors being the same, drivers of vehicles with seat/head restraint combinations rated good in Institute evaluations were 15% less likely to sustain neck injuries in rear-end crashes than drivers of vehicles with poor head restraints.
This is the first year, noted the IIHS, that winners of the Top Safety Pick represent every class of vehicle the IIHS tests except for microcars.
Ford and its subsidiary Volvo have 16 winners. Thirteen winners are from Honda and its Acura division. The Honda fit with optional ESC is the first minicar to earn the designation, the IIHS release says.