66 Vehicles earn top safety pick award

EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - This has been a record year for car safety. 66 vehicles have earned the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's, top safety pick award for 2011. So is your car one of the safest on the road?

Top safety picks recognizes vehicles that do the best job of protecting you in front, side, rollover and rear crashes. This year, car manufacturers have something, finally, to cheer about.

This crash test of the Volkswagen Jetta helped earn the company a top safety pick designation from the insurance institute for highway safety.

This year 66 vehicles earned the highest rankings in four crash tests conducted by the institute compared to just 27 last year.

"I think for consumers its good news, cause there's lots of vehicles to choose from. They're in every market class and every manufacturer offers at least one top safety pick." said Adrian Lund from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The institute conducts front, side, rollover and rear impact crash tests.

"These are the ways people get injured in the real world." said Lund

Models that earn the highest designation must also have electronic stability control to help drivers avoid accidents.

The big winners this year are Hyundai Kia and Volkswagen Audi...The combined brands can boast nine vehicles that earned the highest ratings.

Another company that improved the safety of its vehicles, Toyota. Last year, the brand had no models on the list. This year, 8 made the cut.

"it's not rocket science to build a strong roof, so manufacturers have responded and now we have 66 that meet that requirement this year." said Lund.

The institute added a new test last year to ensure the roofs of vehicles are strong enough to support four times the vehicles weight.Which would help protect its occupants in a rollover accident.