WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Seat and head restraints in morethan 60 percent of newer passenger vehicles on the road fail tooffer optimal head and neck protection in rear-end crashes, aleading safety group said on Thursday.

"Even though we have more good performers, it'sdisappointing that so many designs are still rated marginal orpoor," said Adrian Lund, president of the Insurance Institutefor Highway Safety.

Rear-end collisions are frequent and neck injuries are themost common reported in auto crashes, accounting for 2 millioninsurance claims annually that cost at least $8.5 billion, thegroup said.

Head and seat restraints in 22 car models were rated goodwhile 53 other vehicles posted marginal or poor scores. Thesafety group's results were based on analyzes of restraintdesigns and simulated crashes at 20 mph (32 kph). Testsanalyzed how people of different sizes would be protected in atypical rear-end collision.

All Volvos (VOLVb.ST: Quote, Profile , Research) scored well in the latest analysis asdid the A4, S4 and A6 models made by Audi (NSUG.DE: Quote, Profile , Research). The Ford(F.N: Quote, Profile , Research) Five Hundred/Mercury Montego, the Nissan Sentra and Versa(NSANY.O: Quote, Profile , Research), the Saab 9-3 (GM.N: Quote, Profile , Research) and the Subaru Impreza andLegacy/Outback (7270.T: Quote, NEWS , Research) also earned good ratings.

The Honda (7267.T: Quote, NEWS , Research) Civic two-door earned a good overallrating but the Accord LX and EX models received poor scores.The Toyota (7203.T: Quote, NEWS , Research) Corolla received a poor rating, while theCamry and popular Prius hybrid were marginal for head and neckprotection, the institute found.

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