The poor safety record was the 2nd main reason I decided against the Cirrus,
and we are talking 1.5 years ago (2006 is Cirrus's worst year yet with 6
fatal accidents so far.)

I just searched the NTSB database.
Between January 1, 1997 and October 19, 2006, there have been 22 fatal
accidents out of a total of 59 Cirrus accidents. 21 of the 59 involved
SR20's, the remaining 38 accidents involved SR22's (including one G2).
The NTSB preliminary reports do not include pilot hours, the factual
reports do.