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A fresh report by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that some car headlights did not perform as expected.

The institute -– well-known for crash-testing cars to see how well they protect occupants in a collision –- tested the spectacle of eighty two sets of headlights on thirty one fresh, midsize cars of varying models at its research center in Virginia. The results were “dismal,” the institute said.

Of the thirty one cars tested, the Toyota Prius was the only model to receive a good rating by the institute — but only when the car was tooled with LED lights and high-beam assist (an added cost for the consumer). When the Prius was tested with regular halogen lights and without high-beam assist, it earned a poor rating.

The halogen lights on the BMW three series was ranked the worst among the forty four headlight systems that were tested. But another BMW three series that was tooled with a swivel LED system tested in the top third.

Headlights were evaluated on a track after dark. A special device measured the light from low and high planks as the car was driving in five different patterns: traveling straight, a acute left curve, a acute right curve, a gradual left curve and a gradual right curve.

Researchers fear the poor-performing headlights could be a danger to drivers at high speeds. A motorist going sixty miles per hour on the highway may not have enough time to stop to avoid a hazard.

IIHS said a headlight set on low plank should provide illumination for at least three hundred thirty feet on a straightaway.

There are government regulations about how much light a headlight blub puts out but there is no standard for how far it must reach when installed on the car. Better illumination at night and in the early morning hours can help prevent accidents, IIHS said. Almost fifty percent of all accidents happen at dusk or in the dark, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. IIHS recommends that drivers use their car’s high rafters more frequently to improve visibility on the road.

Matthew Brumbelow, a senior research engineer at IIHS, told ABC News that the institute was “astonished” by the results.

“So you could have the same light, aim it differently, have it at a different height and you’ll get a totally different amount of visibility on the road,” Brumbelow said. “Hopefully, you’ll have time to swerve out of the way. But you may not have time to stop if an obstacle abruptly emerges.”

Carmakers are already paying attention to the results, Brumbelow noted.

“We believe that the fresh headlight rating system will encourage better headlight designs and that we’ll even be able to look five years from now at the crash data and hopefully see the reduction that’s happened,” he explained.

In a statement to ABC News, BMW wrote: “The BMW Group has been an industry leader for headlight technology innovation for more than four decades. While we are disappointed with the results of the IIHS headlight test of a BMW three Series tooled with basic halogen headlights, we remain certain that we suggest our customers very effective headlight systems at a multiplicity of price points.”

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