Each year, nearly two million injury-causing car accidents take place in the United States, and more than 30,000 passenger-vehicle occupants die in those crashes. Given such sobering statistics, safety should factor into your purchase decision just as much as or more than any other feature, especially if you're buying a family vehicle. Today's cars, in general, are far safer than those of the past, but some are safer than others.

Finding Safety Data
The two main organizations that perform automotive safety testing are the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and theInsurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). Both have easy-to-useWeb sites (safercar.gov and IIHS.org) that provide vehicle ratings,along with safety tips and many other features. For the purposes of this article, we'll focus on the NHTSA, its mission, how it tests vehicles, and the results of the latest testing. (To read more about he IIHS, click here.)

History of the NHTSA
The NHTSA is a government agency, while the IIHS is a non profit organization supported by insurance companies. The NHTSA is part of theU.S. Department of Transportation and it conducts automotive safety testing in its New Car Assessment Program (NCAP). According to theNHTSA, the goal of the NCAP is "to improve occupant safety by providing market incentives for vehicle manufacturers to voluntarily design their vehicles to better protect occupants in a crash and be less susceptible to rollover, rather than by regulatory directives."

Under the NCAP, the NHTSA began performing frontal crashes in 1979.Side crash tests were added with the 1997 model year, and rollover ratings started with 2001-model-year vehicles. The now-familiar 5-star rating system began with 1994-model-year vehicles, and manufacturers were required to place NCAP star ratings on new-vehicle window stickers as of September 1, 2007.

The NHTSA contracts with five labs around the country to conduct its front and side crash testing, and it uses two additional labs for rollover testing.

• TestingProcedures
• Top-rankedVehicles
• RecommendedSafety Equipment
• TheFuture of NCAP Testing