Ford, Acura vehicles win safety award

The 2007 Acura MDX sport utility vehicle along with the 2008 Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable passenger cars are best able to withstand frontal, side and rear-impact crashes, a U.S. insurance industry group said Monday.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety awarded the vehicles the "top safety pick" award for vehicles equipped with electronic stability control that perform well on crash tests.

Electronic stability control systems prevent rollovers and will be required in all new U.S. cars by 2012.

Meanwhile, Transport Canada is exploring the need for mandatoryelectronic stability controlon light vehicles sold in the country. The federal agency estimates that if all passenger vehicles had been equipped with electronic stability control in 2004, there would have been at least 156 fewer deaths and 1,000 fewer injuries.

The Ford Five Hundred, which was named a 2006 top safety pick, was dropped from the list because it does not includeelectronic stability controlas a standard feature.

Theinstitute said Honda engineers tweaked earlier versions of the Acura MDX design to improve its head restraint.