Safety Advocates Petition for Greater Side Impact Crash Protection
6 July 1998
Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety Files Petition With Federal Government to Stem the Tide of Losses From Lethal Side Impact Crashes National Safety Organization Says Current Federal Standard
is Too Weak, Long Overdue for Upgrading
WASHINGTON, July 6 -- Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety
(Advocates) today announced that it had filed a petition on July 2, 1998, with
the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) asking for major
improvements in the level of protection for the occupants of passenger
vehicles struck in their sides.
"More than one-third of the serious to severe injuries suffered in
passenger vehicle crashes last year were the result of side impacts," said
Judith Lee Stone, President of Advocates. "Big, heavy, stiff sport utility
vehicles (SUVs), full size vans, and large pickups are causing a rising toll
of deaths and serious injuries, especially in side impact crashes with
smaller, lighter passenger vehicles."
Stone also pointed out that a recent Louis Harris national poll
commissioned for Advocates shows that 81 percent of the American people want
the government and auto manufacturers to upgrade side impact protection.
Stone emphasized that it clearly is necessary for NHTSA to act quickly to stem
the tide of unnecessary deaths due to side impact crashes: "We are strongly in
favor of more research to see what has to be done in the long term to make all
passenger vehicles, large and small, more compatible when they inevitably
crash. But, in the meantime, we have to make major improvements in the level
of safety we provide for the occupants of vehicles struck in their sides.
Right now, there is just not enough safety built into most passenger vehicles
to protect the occupants well in side impacts."
Advocates' petition evaluates several innovative ways in which NHTSA could
strengthen Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 214, Side Impact
Protection. The petition does not ask for mandatory changes in the current
standard on side impact protection. Instead, NHTSA is urged to adopt optional
standards that would be used only if manufacturers wanted to install dynamic
side impact protection systems in their new vehicles. There would be
incentives for manufacturers to use the more demanding tests of the optional
standards, including potential cost-saving approaches to complying with parts
of two different federal standards through a single test.
"The rule this petition is asking NHTSA to adopt builds on the agency's
own recent approach to an optional, higher level of compliance for a companion
safety standard, No. 201, which sets requirements for upper interior head
impact protection," said Dr. Gerald Donaldson, Senior Research Director for
Advocates. "Our goal in this petition is to encourage manufacturers to equip
all their cars, mini-vans, small pickups, and small SUVs with side impact air
bags or other dynamic safety technologies."
"Our petition asks for agency guidance to manufacturers so that they can
apply their safety design ingenuity and use the power of the marketplace to
lift side impact safety to a new level," added Stone.
NHTSA in 1995 acknowledged in its last rulemaking action on Standard No.
214 that the regulation was not strong enough and that further changes were
necessary. Some vehicle manufacturers are installing side impact air bags on
some of their makes and models to comply with the standard. However, the weak
passing scores of the regulation permit the use of only additional padding for
compliance and do not motivate manufacturers to install side impact air bags
in all of their smaller vehicles.
Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety is a broad-based alliance of
consumer, safety, health and law enforcement groups and insurance
organizations working together to promote effective highway safety legislation
and policies at both the state and federal levels. For more information on
Advocates, please visit the homepage on the World Wide Web at
http://www.saferoads.org.
