The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety recently recognized the 2019 Toyota Prius and Prius Prime with Top Safety Pick awards, which means Toyota now has earned seven safety awards for its 2019 models.

Both small cars underwent rigorous evaluations, earning good scores in five IIHS crashworthiness tests. These included the driver-side small overlap front, moderate overlap front, side, roof strength and head restraint tests.

The Prius hybrid and the Prius Prime plug-in hybrid also each earned the necessary acceptable rating in the passenger-side small overlap crash test.

To capture Top Safety status, vehicles must also garner an advanced or superior rating for front crash prevention as well as a good or acceptable headlight rating. Both models fared well as they come standard with superior-rated front crash prevention systems that avoided collisions in IIHS track tests at 12 mph and 25 mph. 

As for headlights, here again, the two Toyota vehicles meet the criteria. All available headlights on both vehicles earn an acceptable rating. High-beam assist, a system that automatically switches between high beams and low beams, depending on the presence of other vehicles, comes standard.