The safety of a car is evaluated primarily through crash tests and safety ratings provided by organizations like the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). These organizations perform rigorous crash tests, rating vehicles on their ability to protect occupants in frontal, side, and rollover crashes. NHTSA uses a 5-star rating system, with more stars indicating higher safety. IIHS provides ratings such as Good, Acceptable, Marginal, and Poor based on crashworthiness and crash avoidance technology. Modern cars are engineered with advanced safety features such as forward collision warning, lane departure warning, crash imminent braking, rearview cameras, and dynamic brake support to enhance safety. Car safety depends also on structural design, such as unibody construction that redirects crash forces, and safety systems like seat belts with pretensioners and airbags. Real-world safety also involves factors like driver behavior and vehicle size/class, but crash-test ratings give a clear, standardized measure of vehicle protection in accidents.

To know how safe a specific car is, look up its NHTSA 5-star rating or IIHS rating online, as these reflect current crash test results and safety feature assessments.