The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has recognized the 2019 Ford Edge with a Top Safety Pick award when the vehicle is outfitted with specific headlights.

This recognition marks Ford's first 2019 safety award from the Institute.

The Edge was put through the paces and garnered good ratings in six rigorous tests. It even aced the driver-side small overlap front crash test — whereas in past years the Edge only achieved an acceptable rating on that evaluation.

The Institute credits its better performance in that particular test to a modification beginning with the 2019 model year, whereby the Edge uses the same body and bumper structure as the Lincoln Nautilus.

Other tests that the Edge aced include the moderate overlap front, side, roof strength, head restraint tests, and passenger-side small overlap front test.

Vehicles must also earn an advanced or superior rating for vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention and a good or acceptable headlight rating in order to gain Top Safety status.

For crash prevention, the Edge clearly measured up. It comes with a standard front crash prevention system that rates superior for its ability to react to an imminent crash with another vehicle. In track tests, the system avoided collisions in both 12 and 25 mph tests. The SUV is also available with an optional system that also rates superior.

As for headlights, the 2019 model demonstrated improvements, according to the Institute.

The SUV's available curve-adaptive LED projector headlights earn an acceptable rating for models built after March—giving the Edge the final edge it needed to be named a Top Safety Pick.