There’s good reason to get excited about the incoming GMC Sierra and Chevy Silverado 1500s: they look fresh, with new body lines and grille arrangements; their fuel-efficient engines offer upwards of 305 lb.-ft. of torque to fulfill most light-duty tasks; and their construction looks to give drivers and passengers a comfortable ride with high-quality steel and body mounts, lessening the shuddering and jolting that made previous models aggravating to drive.

However, it seems these new pickups aren’t done impressing the public. Just recently, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), under its revised 2011 guidelines for awarding scores to automobiles, awarded five-star ratings to each of the 2014 Crew Cab models. According to GM, the four-door pickups are expected to make up 60 percent of its 2014 light duty full-size pickup truck sales, making them the ideal choice to crash-test.

The NHTSA determined the five-star rating by way of several tests. These included side pole testing, using different sized crash-test dummies, collecting more crash data, offering a single Overall Vehicle Score per vehicle, and highlighting new crash avoidance technologies.

These tests were conducted at speeds between 20-38.5mph, and measured the effects on average male and female dummies. Meanwhile, technicians searched for injuries sustained to the head, neck, chest, lower spine, pelvis, legs and feet.

The end result was that the trucks posed “much less than average injury risk.” In other words, these things apparently rule when it comes to saving your life.

In its own estimation, General Motors attributes the results to the fully boxed frames and high-strength steel manufacturing. We’d like to think it’s because there’s an automatic anti-“YOLO” device that switches on when the driver loses his marbles.

If your parachute doesn’t deploy, not only do you die, but you die in a dumb car.