The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) just announced its 'Top Safety Pick' awards for 2025. The list is updated every year and can be seen here, ranking the top cars on the road for driver and passenger safety.
This year, there are 23 fewer cars on the list than in 2024, and IIHS President David Harkey says this is due to an increased focus on passenger safety for backseat passengers. The IIHS puts cars through multiple different crash tests to see how they perform.
See the 2025 list of the safest cars from IIHS here.
“We have a dummy in the front seat...and in the rear seat," Harkey said. "We’re looking at if there’s an increased crash safety risk for either of the dummies.”
This year they required higher test performance standards to be a top safety pick, hoping by raising their bar that automakers do as well.
“We have confidence the automakers will respond to our new test and we will get more winners throughout the year," Harkey said.
No matter how advanced a car is, Harkey says passengers who wear their seatbelts are much more likely to not be injured or survive a crash than passengers who don't.
“We need to put that seatbelt on," Harkey said.
In the back seat in Arizona, the law says you don't have to wear a seatbelt if you're 16 or older. Personal injury lawyer Marc Lamber says in cases he takes, he sees the difference for himself.
“I see the folks not wearing a seatbelt suffer really bad injuries or worse, and people in the same accident, same car, who are, walk away unscathed," Lamber said.
Data backs him up. Looking at ADOT crash facts for people who do and don't wear safety devices in crashes, you’re 33 times more likely to die in a car crash if you’re not wearing a seatbelt.
At the state capitol, there are no proposals to require passengers of all ages to buckle up in the back seat. Lamber hopes legislation can catch up to modern safety improvements, even if it leads to fewer clients.
"The things I would like to see done are two-fold: one, make non-use of seatbelts a primary offense," Lambert said. "Two, I think it's real simple - requiring rear-seat passengers to wear a seatbelt," Lambert said.
