Air bag standards overhaul announced

The changes, intended to improve protection of children and small adults, are called a risk to unbelted larger adults.

©Associated Press

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 6, 2000

WASHINGTON -- The government announced new air bag standards Friday that seek to improve protection of children and small adults. Critics contend larger adults who don't wear seat belts could be put at greater risk.

The new rule overhauls the government's standards for air bags, which to date are credited with saving more than 5,000 lives and blamed for at least 158 deaths.

Under the new standards, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will require air bags to protect vehicle occupants in a 25-mph crash test, the level supported by automakers, rather than a test at 30 mph favored by some consumer advocates.

The 25-mph standard will be phased in over three years, starting with 2004 model year vehicles.

Most air bag deaths have involved unrestrained children and small adults in low-speed crashes, victims most often of air bags that deployed so forcefully they caused neck injuries.

The 25-mph test will not require the air bags to inflate as forcefully as a 30-mph test.

"At the end of the day, we focused on the most vulnerable and the most at-risk of being killed by the air bags that were supposed to benefit them," Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater said.

Some consumer groups say the new standard will put more adults at risk because the bags will not be designed to deploy with enough force to protect unbelted larger adults.

"We need a 30-mph standard because people are more likely to be killed or seriously injured in higher-speed crashes, and this is where air bags have saved the most lives," said Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, Ralph Nader's non-profit group.

NHTSA required a 30-mph test until 1997, when worries about air bags injuring motorists caused the agency to approve a rule that temporarily allowed automakers to use a 25-mph test.

Rather than change the test, Claybrook said automakers should install dual-power air bags that would inflate at different speeds depending on the severity of impact and size of the occupant.

The real reason the auto industry wants the 25-mph test, Claybrook said, is that popular sport utility vehicles cannot meet the 30-mph standard because of stiff designs that do not absorb impact as well as cars.

Lance Roberts of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers rejected that argument. If it were true, he said, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the American Trauma Society and the National Transportation Safety Board would not support the 25-mph test as the safer alternative.

"It's certainly not about saving money or about protecting any classification of vehicle," Roberts said. "This rule is going to go so much further in enhancing vehicle safety, it's unprecedented."

NHTSA also will require vehicles to be tested using a family of dummies -- an average-size man, a small woman and 1-, 3- and 6-year-old children. Previous tests involved only average-size men.

The new regulations also attempt to re-create real-world conditions by placing child dummies in child seats on the passenger seat and in unbelted sitting, kneeling, standing and lying positions.

NHTSA estimates the new standards will increase costs by less than $100 per vehicle.

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