Lincoln Continental earns 2019 Top Safety Pick+ award

The 2019 Lincoln Continental earns the Top Safety Pick+ award when equipped with optional good-rated headlights.

The large luxury car has good crashworthiness ratings across the board and comes with standard front crash prevention that earns a superior rating.

To qualify for a 2019 Top Safety Pick+ award, a vehicle must earn good ratings in the driver-side small overlap front, passenger-side small overlap front, moderate overlap front, side, roof strength and head restraint tests. It also needs an advanced or superior rating for front crash prevention and a good headlight rating.

The Continental's optional LED headlights earn a good rating. The other headlight variant — high-intensity discharge lamps — are rated poor because the low beams create excessive glare for drivers of oncoming vehicles.

With the addition of the Continental, there are now 31 vehicles that earn Top Safety Pick+, while another 27 earn the second-tier Top Safety Pick award. The Continental is the first vehicle from a U.S. manufacturer to earn the higher award for 2019. It wasn't included in the initial announcement of winners in December because testing of its new seat/head restraint combination for protection against whiplash wasn't completed in time. The 2019 model's other crashworthiness ratings carried over from the previous year.