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WASHINGTON, Jan. 10, 2000 -- Auto manufacturers and
the government agencies that are supposed to be their watchdogs
point with pride to the continuing decline in highway deaths,
relative to total miles driven.
What they don't boast about is the continuing toll of death
and injury in one-vehicle rollovers involving Sport Utes and
light pick-up trucks.
The recently-released 1998 fatality count was 41,471 -- about
1.6 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles, roughly equal
to 1997 and down from the 1.7 rate of 1992-96.
But of those 41,000 fatalities, about 9,000 occured in "first
event" rollovers -- accidents in which vehicles, mostly
Sport Utes and pickups, overturn without hitting other vehicles.
Another 60,000 are injured each year in such accidents.
Experts say these first-event rollover are almost totally avoidable
through proper design. And since the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration (NHTSA) was created specifically to mandate
safer cars and highways, it might be expected to take action
to reduce rollovers.
But despite several attempts since 1973, the agency has failed
to institute tough new measures and has rejected several proposed
standards for one reason or another. NHTSA has also rejected
a number of petitions asking it to declare specific models unsafe.
Its reasoning is that since the high-center, narrow-track vehicles
are inherently unsafe, it would be unfair to single out a particular
brand or model.
NHTSA's failure to act has also served the industry well in
defending against suits brought by consumer lawyers. The "NHTSA
defense" -- a classic Catch 22 -- basically is that the
vehicles must be safe or NHTSA would not permit them to be built.
Consumer leaders and plaintiffs' attorneys blame the lucrative
revolving-door deals that lure many former NHTSA officials to
take industry's side once they leave government.
Former NHTSA Administrator Jerry Curry supplements his NHTSA
and U.S. Army pension checks by working as an expert witness
for auto makers. He earned hundreds of thousands of dollars
testifying for Ford, Chrysler, Nissan, Suzuki and Hyundai, according
to a recent analysis by The Los Angeles Times.
Curry was finally blocked from testifying in defense of the
Ford Bronco II after complaints that, since he had approved
the decision to close a NHTSA probe of Bronco II rollover, his
actions on behalf of Ford constituted a conflict of interest.
Replacing him on the stand in many Bronco cases was William
Boehly, a former NHTSA enforcement chief who is now vice president
of the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers.
Boehly said former NHTSA officials need to earn a living and
shouldn't be criticized for defending the industry they were
once paid to regulate.
"What would you want them to do -- put on a funny hat
and say, 'Would you like fries with these?'" the Times
quoted him as saying.
Indeed, while their earnings may not match Curry's, some former
NHTSA officials continue to work on behalf of consumers.
Former agency head Joan Claybrook is president of Public Citizen,
founded by Ralph Nader, and remains a tough critic of the auto
industry. Also, former associate administrator A. Michael Brownlee
has testified for accident victims in cases where the auto companies
allegedly withheld safety data from NHTSA.
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