The Ford Fusion and Fusion Hybrid rocketed as much as the center of the mid-size sedan pack with regards to safety this week, when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced that it was giving the Fusion a five-star overall crash-test rating.

NHTSA’s ratings for the 2013 Fusion awarded five stars for frontal crash, four stars for a facet-impact crash, and 4 stars for a rollover. NHTSA’s weighted average was such, however, that the Fusion scores an ideal five stars overall. It’s aided, surely, by the truth that the Fusion offers all three of NHTSA’s key safety tech features: electronic stability control (standard on all 2012-and-up U.S.-market cars), a forward collision warning, and lane-departure warning.

Ford says that the rating is a mirrored image of its advanced technology in airbags and passenger detection. The marquee technology known as the non-public Safety System, which uses a network of sensors (like passenger-seat occupant sensors, weight sensors, and seating position sensors) to make decisions on how quickly or how hard to inflate front dual-stage airbags and activate the seat belt pretensioners. At the sides of the automobile, new thorax airbags have specially placed vents that activate when a smaller passenger is within the seat; when a bigger passenger hits the airbag, he/she can actually block off the shoulder vent, keeping the bag inflated for more cushioning.

It’s an ingenious solution, one which paid dividends with NHTSA: a rear-seat female passenger receives a five-star side-barrier crash-test rating; a front-seat female passenger who hits a pole also receives a five-star rating. Unfortunately, a bigger male driver within the side-barrier test only receives three stars.

With ratings like these, the Fusion nearly matches the pinnacle-rated cars in its segment. The 2013 Honda Accord excels in side crash and rollover tests (scoring five stars) but doesn’t do besides in a frontal crash (four stars to the Fusion’s five). The 2013 Chevrolet Malibu scores five stars in all tests however the rollover. Making things more complicated is the undeniable fact that the very best-rated car within the segment, the 2013 Kia Optima, scored perfect fives around the board but doesn’t offer a lane-departure or forward-collision warning.

In any case, the Fusion has succeeded in becoming competitive in fuel economy and safety categories; only time will tell if it competes in reliability to boot.

Source: NHTSA, Ford