NHTSA's New Head Protection Rule Puts New Technology on Fast Track
30 July 1998
NHTSA's New Head Protection Rule Puts New Technology on Fast Track
WASHINGTON, July 30 -- To enable the automobile manufacturing
industry to quickly bring new, lifesaving technology to the marketplace, U.S.
Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater today announced a final rule
amending the department's landmark head injury protection safety standard.
"This change will enable new car manufacturers to bring lifesaving
technology quickly to motorists, thus saving lives and preventing injuries,"
Secretary Slater said. "The department's action is a direct result of
President Clinton's commitment to safety as the highest transportation
priority and to responsiveness in government."
These changes to the upper head protection requirements of National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) Federal Motor Vehicle Safety
Standard (FMVSS) 201 permit automakers to install dynamically deploying
interior head protection systems that will provide additional safety in side-
impact crashes.
"These revisions should improve overall motor vehicle safety by a
significant margin, especially in more serious crashes," NHTSA Administrator
Ricardo Martinez, M.D., said.
The systems are known as "Head Protection Systems" and "Inflatable
Curtains," and will be marketed under other names in the future. They are air
bag-like devices designed to deploy during side impacts to provide extra head
protection. The devices also may reduce the possibility of being ejected from
a vehicle.
In recent years, about 2,400 occupants of light vehicles have been killed
and 60,000 have been injured each year in crashes that cause their heads to
strike pillars, side rails, headers and other upper interior components.
The head protection standard was hailed in 1995 as the most significant
new safety rule in a decade. NHTSA estimated that each year the rule would
save up to 1,200 lives, prevent up to 975 serious head injuries and provide an
annual economic benefit of $900 million.
As adopted in 1995, FMVSS 201 upper head injury requirements are being
phased in over five years beginning with the 1999 model year. During the
first year, beginning Sept. 1, 1998, 10 percent of each manufacturer's
vehicles must comply; beginning Sept. 1, 1999, 25 percent; beginning Sept. 1,
2000, 40 percent; and beginning Sept. 1, 2001, 70 percent. All vehicles
manufactured beginning Sept. 1, 2002, must comply.
Most automakers plan to use increased padding to comply with the standard,
but some have chosen to use dynamically deploying head protection systems. It
was necessary for NHTSA to amend the original head protection standard to
accommodate those plans.
Vehicles equipped with such dynamic systems will have to comply with a new
test in which the vehicle is crashed into a pole to make sure that the systems
provide additional protection. NHTSA also is introducing a new side impact
crash dummy that will be used in this new pole test.
NHTSA estimates that, depending on the number of vehicles on which they
are introduced, the new dynamic head protection systems can prevent as many as
250 additional fatalities each year beyond the savings from the original upper
interior head protection rule.