How Safe Is the 2026 Toyota Camry?

What Car Shoppers Need to Know

• Toyota Camry named a Top Safety Pick+ by Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
• Top Safety Pick+ is the agency’s highest award for occupant protection.
• Camry rival Hyundai Sonata also earns Top Safety Pick+ honors

Efficient, affordable and offering an exceptionally spacious cabin, the 2026 Toyota Camry is an excellent family vehicle. Exclusively sold as a hybrid since the current generation debuted for 2025, the Camry is among the most efficient vehicles you can buy for less than $35,000. It’s also one of the safest mid-size sedans, as it’s been named a Top Safety Pick+ by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

The Camry also earned a top five out of five stars overall in the government-run National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s crash tests. It earned five stars in NHTSA’s frontal, side and rollover crash evaluations, but this article will focus on the Camry’s IIHS scores.

Related: Here’s Why You Should Consider a Toyota Camry Over a RAV4

Camry Crash-Test Scores

IIHS subjects vehicles to three different crash tests (two frontal collisions and a side impact), as well as evaluations of how well the headlights illuminate a dark road and how well its forward collision avoidance system reduces collisions or at least reduces vehicle speed before impact, thereby minimizing the risk of serious damage or injury. IIHS scores vehicle performance in these tests on a scale of good, acceptable, marginal or poor.

Crashworthiness

The Camry earned the highest rating, good, in all three crash tests. The small overlap front test mimics the common type of collision in which the vehicle leaves the road and strikes a solid object like a utility pole. Traveling at 40 mph, the subject vehicle hits a rigid barrier that covers 25% of the vehicle’s width. The test is performed once on each side of the vehicle. For the driver-side test, a single crash-test dummy the size of an average adult male is belted into the driver’s seat. For the passenger-side test, another adult male dummy sits in the front-passenger seat.

For the moderate overlap frontal crash test, the vehicle is again accelerated to 40 mph, but this time it hits a barrier that covers 40% of its width and has a face of deformable aluminum honeycomb. This test replicates the conditions in another common type of collision in which a vehicle crosses the road centerline and strikes another vehicle head-on. The forces in this test simulate those in a crash in which both cars are traveling just below 40 mph. For this test, an adult male dummy sits in the driver’s seat, with a dummy simulating a 12-year-old child or a small woman belted into the seat behind the driver.

In the side impact test, a 4,200-pound sled meant to mimic a modern SUV hits the driver’s side of the subject vehicle at 37 mph. This test is performed with two of the smaller dummies in the test vehicle, one in the driver’s seat and one in the second-row seat behind the driver.

Crash Avoidance and Mitigation

IIHS’ headlight evaluation measures how well a vehicle’s headlights illuminate a dark road on straightaways and in sharp and gentle curves to both the right and left. When possible, the agency separately evaluates all headlights available on a model.

The institute’s test for pedestrian detection technologies evaluates how well the vehicle detects pedestrians crossing the road perpendicular to the vehicle’s direction of travel both in daylight and at nighttime. A third test measures the vehicle’s ability to detect a pedestrian walking in the vehicle’s direction of travel at night.

The test for vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention also consists of three parts. The first uses another passenger vehicle and is performed with the other vehicle centered in the lane as well as offset to the sides of the lane. The second measures the system’s ability to detect a motorcycle, with tests likewise conducted with the motorcycle centered and offset within the lane. The third uses a semitrailer. This test is only conducted once, with the trailer centered in the lane.

The Camry also earned the highest grade, good, in the tests of its forward collision warning technology. The only blemish in its results was an acceptable in the headlight evaluation.

Related Video:

Versus Competitors

Of the Camry’s direct competitors, only the Hyundai Sonata also ranks as an IIHS Top Safety Pick+. To earn Top Safety Pick+ honors, a vehicle must earn a good rating in all three crash tests, a good in the pedestrian detection test, and acceptable in the vehicle-to-vehicle and headlight evaluations.

The Honda Accord earns the institute’s second-tier award, Top Safety Pick. To qualify as a Top Safety Pick, a vehicle also needs to score a good in all three crash tests and come with acceptable-rated headlights as standard equipment. Here, an acceptable is sufficient in the pedestrian detection test, and there is no requirement for the vehicle-to-vehicle crash prevention test.

More Toyota Camry News From Cars.com:

• How Much Is the 2026 Toyota Camry?
• 2026 Toyota Camry Doesn’t Fix What Isn’t Broken, Adds Nightshade Edition
• How Do Car Seats Fit in a 2025 Toyota Camry?
• Research the Toyota Camry
• Add Cars.com as a Preferred Source on Google

Cars.com’s Editorial department is your source for automotive news and reviews. In line with Cars.com’s long-standing ethics policy, editors and reviewers don’t accept gifts or free trips from automakers. The Editorial department is independent of Cars.com’s advertising, sales and sponsored content departments.