The top ten safest cars on the road for 2019 have been revealed by British safety organisation Thatcham Research, with the overall winner claiming the What Car? Safety Award later this month.

The overall award will be judged by a panel of experts over a number of criteria including Euro NCAP crash-test rating, protection for all passengers, advanced safety systems like adaptive cruise control and also how the car has performed in terms of sales in the UK.

Thatcham Research's director of research, Matthew Avery, said: "It’s clear that occupants of the latest cars are at a lower risk than ever. But not resting on our laurels, we raised the bar in safety testing for 2018. This means the 10 cars in this list are some of the safest ever made, anywhere in the world."

The cars in contention are the Audi A6, Audi Q3, Ford Focus, Jaguar I-Pace, Lexus ES, Mercedes-Benz A-Class, Nissan Leaf, Peugeot 508, Volvo V60 and S60 and the Volvo XC40.

Some of the advanced safety systems from these top rated brands include Volvo’s Pilot Assist system, Jaguar’s crash avoidance technology, Mercedes’ driver assistance system and Ford’s own crash avoidance technology which now fitted as standard.

The award will be announced on January 22nd, along with all the other big winners at What Car? Car of the Year Awards.

The 2018 winner was the Volvo XC60.

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