David Harkey, who leads the nonprofit research organization, pointed to the 2026 Mazda 3 — base price $24,550 — as evidence that crash protection and cutting-edge collision avoidance technology are well within reach for budget-conscious buyers. The Mazda, along with the Hyundai Kona, Honda Accord, Toyota Camry and Subaru Forester, each starting under $30,000, all carry the institute’s highest honor, the 2025 Top Safety Pick+ award.
“A safe car doesn’t have to cost a lot,” Harkey wrote in a column published this week. “Giving up on safety progress, on the other hand, will have very real costs — in terms of both dollars and lives.”
His remarks come as vehicle affordability has become a flashpoint in Washington. A House subcommittee held a hearing last week on auto safety and innovation, and Senate Commerce Committee members are expected to call auto industry executives to testify in the coming weeks. Some participants in those discussions have suggested that safety requirements inflate vehicle prices and should be scaled back.
Harkey pushed back on that framing, arguing that convenience upgrades and consumer preference for larger vehicles — not safety mandates — are what’s actually inflating sticker prices. The popular Ford F-150 pickup starts at nearly $40,000, with higher trims topping $70,000. Even buyers of more modest vehicles often opt for leather interiors, premium audio systems and other amenities that have nothing to do with crash protection.
The institute’s president drew a direct line from decades of federally mandated safety investments to lives saved. Seat belts alone have prevented an estimated 450,000 deaths since 1968. Frontal airbags saved roughly 70,000 lives through 2019. Electronic stability control — now standard across the industry — has been credited with preventing an estimated 29,000 fatalities.
A 2019 analysis by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that federal motor vehicle safety standards delivered societal value exceeding their cost to consumers by a ratio of 23 to 1 — $881 billion in benefits against $38 billion in consumer costs.
Harkey acknowledged that higher vehicle prices do pose an indirect threat to safety, as Americans hold onto older cars longer when new ones become unaffordable. But he was unequivocal that safety should not be the line item on the chopping block.
The institute recently launched what it calls 30×30, an initiative aimed at cutting U.S. road deaths by 30% before the end of the decade. Despite decades of progress, the United States continues to trail other developed nations in reducing traffic fatalities, and deaths have been trending upward in recent years.
“Automakers should absolutely look for ways to cut costs for consumers,” Harkey said, “but not at the expense of people’s lives.”