[NYTr] Auto Safety: Rules Need Upgrades - Public Citizen

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Public Citizen - Sep 5, 2007
http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=2503


Side-Impact Rule Provides Needed Upgrades, Misses Some Marks

Statement of Robert Shull, Deputy Director for Auto Safety and
Regulatory Policy at Public Citizen

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has taken an
important first step with the side-impact standard it released today.
NHTSA should be congratulated for this improved standard, but its work
is far from done.

Two important changes will help ensure that automakers design vehicles
to protect more people from more types of side-impact crashes:

    * Automakers will now have to build vehicles to protect people from
side-impact collisions not only with other vehicles but also with
stationary objects (such as trees and other objects on the road).
Vehicles will be subjected to a tougher performance test that
integrates two kinds of testing: dynamic pole tests, representing
side-impact crashes with stationary objects, and movable deforming
barrier (MDB) tests, replicating side-impact crashes with other
vehicles. Previously NHTSA tested using only MDB tests.

    * For the first time, NHTSA is mandating the use of not just
average-size male dummies but also petite female dummies in gathering
crash test injury data. This change forces auto manufacturers to
consider side-impact designs safest for broader population segments.

Now that NHTSA has taken these important steps, it must immediately
address some unfinished business to protect the public.

First, the agency must address the incredibly important issue of
compatibility, or the catastrophe of fatal mismatches between passenger
cars and much larger light trucks and SUVs. The occupant of a car is
three times more likely to be killed when struck by an SUV instead of a
car and five times more likely to be killed when struck by a pickup
truck. The upgraded side-impact standard essentially tests for a
collision with a mid-size passenger car, not an SUV. To fully replicate
crash scenarios and prevent the most injury, NHTSA needs to use a
moving deformable barrier that is higher, stiffer and mimics a
collision with a heavier, bigger SUV.

Second, NHTSA needs to improve safety for children. The dummies used in
the upgraded testing, even in the back seat, do not adequately
represent a child under the age of 12, leaving child occupants
vulnerable and unaccounted for in safety testing. Additionally, the
pole test applies only to front seat passenger tests and is not used to
monitor any back seat passengers – child or otherwise. To fully protect
back seat passengers, especially small children, child-size dummies
must be used in addition to adult dummies in both pole and movable
deforming barrier tests. 

Third, the standard does not protect against side-impact collisions so
intense that the striking vehicle or object intrudes into the vehicle.
The pole test adopted fails to include a minimum, acceptable intrusion
limit. A strict limit on the amount of acceptable amount of cab
intrusion would better prevent injury to occupants in side-impact
crashes.

The mandatory side-impact safety standards will be phased in for new
vehicles under 8,500 lbs. over a three-year period. All such vehicles
produced after Sept. 1, 2012, must meet the standards. Heavier vehicles
have an extra year to achieve full compliance; all vehicles over 8,500
lbs. produced after Sept. 1, 2013, must meet the new side-impact
requirements.

NHTSA is definitely on the right track, but it still has miles to go
before its job is done.

###