The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) recently putthe wraps on its ratings for SUV safety picks, and several Japanesemodels came out on top. According to tests that involved front,side, and rear impacts, the 2009 Nissan Murano was rated as the topsafety pick. The Mitsubishi Endeavor and Mazda's CX-7 and CX-9would have earned top rankings as well, but all three models failedto earn good ratings for protection against neck injuries inrear-end crashes. (Both Mazdas were rated marginal, while theEndeavor was rated poor.)

To earn the Top Safety Pick designation, an SUV must rank asgood or higher in all three impact tests. They also must beequipped with electronic stability control (ESC), a crashprevention technology that monitors how well a car responds to adriver's steering input. Last year, the nation's top transportationofficials announced a rule that will require ESC to become standardequipment on every new passenger vehicle sold in America by 2012,which could lead to reduced number of auto claims for insurers.

The Nissan Murano was bolstered by its “good” rating forprotection against whiplash injury in rear-end crashes. Accordingto the IIHS, whiplash is the most serious injury reported in abouttwo million insurance claims each year, which cost at least $8.5billion.

With the good, however, comes the bad. The 2008 JeepLiberty/Dodge Nitro and the Jeep Wrangler 4-Door both ranked asmarginal in the side-impact tests, and the Kia Sorento received apoor rating. And while the Hummer H3 looks built strong enough totake out a small building, its front-impact rating was ratedacceptable, one tick below the high rating of good.”Acceptableisn't a bad rating,” said Joe Nolan, senior vice president of IIHS,in a release. “It's just not the best protection that's available.Considering the Hummer's acceptable side rating and poor rating inthe rear test, we can see that this SUV hasn't been designed withthe state-of-the-art crash protection of many of itscompetitors.”Overall, however, the IIHS notes that safety seems tobe improving across the board. It said that in 2001, only half ofthe midsize SUV models that were tested earned good ratings in thefrontal offset test. In the latest evaluations, all but the HummerH3 did, and it earned an acceptable rating.

Interested in more auto-claim news and in-depth articles? Headover to Claims' auto-claim channel for more information.