Safety Groups Say Proposal Requiring Stronger Vehicle Roofs Inadequate for Protecting Motorists

WASHINGTON November 21, 2005; Ken Thomas writing for the AP reported that safety groups said Monday a proposed regulation to require stronger vehicle roofs was inadequate for protecting motorists in rollover crashes, which kill more than 10,000 people a year.

On the other side, automakers said the government underestimated the design changes that would be needed to upgrade their fleets and urged regulators to give them more time.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposed the regulation in August requiring roofs to handle direct pressure of 2.5 times the vehicle weight, an increase from the current rule of 1.5 times the weight.

For the first time, it takes into account large sport utility vehicles and pickups such as the Ford Expedition and Dodge Ram while seeking ways to protect occupants in the future through improved seat belt technology.

But safety groups said about 70 percent of vehicles already comply with the standard and said the rule was developed arbitrarily, with too much focus on how much it would cost the auto industry instead of designing a regulation to save more lives.

"The agency should go back to the drawing board and develop a far more stringent and effective test," said Joan Claybrook, president of watchdog group Public Citizen. She called the proposal "grossly inadequate" and the result of "junk science."

She was joined at a news conference by the Rev. Lawrence Harris of Pittsgrove, N.J., who was left a quadriplegic in a 1997 rollover crash. "People need to know crashes like mine are not rare -- they happen every single day to people all around us," Harris said.

NHTSA spokesman Rae Tyson said the proposal had been in development since 2001 and involved the "best minds in government" who thoroughly examined an upgrade to the rule, which has been in place since the 1970s.

"It's not junk science. It's very well-reasoned science," Tyson said.

Under the proposal, vehicles would likely need to come into compliance by September 2009. But automakers said a much larger proportion of vehicles would have to be redesigned than estimated by NHTSA and asked that the rule be phased in.

Bob Lange, General Motors Corp.'s top safety official, wrote that the changes "are quite significant and will consume large amounts of engineering, manufacturing, and capital resources that are not now comprehended in our product cycle plans."

The Alliance for Automobile Manufacturers, a trade group representing nine automakers, said the proposal would require more head room in the vehicles, leading to potential unintended safety consequences, such as making vehicles more top heavy.

Outside groups have also raised concern about the proposal's language that could prevent plaintiffs from suing automakers if they fail to have roof crush standards stronger than the federal rules. The provision is supported by automakers.

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the ranking Democrat, wrote NHTSA Acting Administrator Jacqueline Glassman last week to ask about the proposal.

"Congress mandated that NHTSA establish standards to 'reduce vehicle rollover crashes and mitigate deaths and injuries associated with such crashes.' It seems to us that this end will not be served by the new proposed Rule," Specter and Leahy wrote.

The provision would be part of the agency's deliberations, Tyson said.

Rollover crashes account for more than one-third of traffic fatalities and killed more than 10,500 people last year. About 60 percent of those killed were not wearing seat belts.

NHTSA estimates nearly 600 fatalities and more than 800 serious injuries a year involve people wearing seat belts who come into contact with a collapsed roof during a rollover crash.

NHTSA has estimated the rule change will cost the industry $88 million to $95 million a year and save 13 to 44 lives per year. It could prevent 500 to 800 injuries a year, according to NHTSA.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: http://www.nhtsa.gov/