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Feds to Require Additional Minivan Door Latch

By Joe Benton
ConsumerAffairs.com

February 7, 2007

Auto Safety • Study: Vision Checks Cut Fatal Accidents • Is Your Vehicle Child-Proof? • Teen Misjudgment Major Factor in Highway Accidents • New Auto Safety Legislation Aims to Protect Children • Insurance Group: Supersport Motorcycles Deadly • Feds Consider Tougher Auto Safety Ratings • Congress Urged to Protect Children from Vehicle Deaths • Motorcycle Death Rates Rising, Safety Chief Warns • Feds to Require Additional Minivan Door Latch • Survey: Teens Still Driving Dangerously • Feds Propose Recorders to Monitor Truckers' Hours • Feds Propose New Auto Safety Tests • Consumers Choosing Tiny Cars Despite Safety Risks • IIHS: Bigger is Better in Car Safety • NHTSA's Dirty Little Secrets • Feds Find Backup Sensors Ineffective • Simpler Dashboards Might Make Cars Safer • States Struggle to Cut Highway Fatality Rate • Ford Makes Stability Control Standard for 2009 • Feds Require Safety Info on New Car Window Stickers • Motorcycle, Pedestrian Deaths Rising • Safer Cars, Not Safer Drivers, Reducing Highway Deaths • Former Lobbyist in Driver's Seat at NHTSA • Must-Have Safety and Convenience Features for New Car Shopping • More ...

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has revised safety requirements to require sliding doors on minivans to have a second latch.

The change is designed to prevent doors from opening during crashes so that unbelted motorists are not thrown out of the vehicle. People most as risk of being thrown through the open sliding door of a minivan in an accident are children, according to NHTSA.

"Individuals with the greatest exposure to sliding door failures are children. Children sit in the back of vehicles in disproportionately high numbers," NHTSA's rule said. "We do not believe this exposure is acceptable."

Manufacturers say the new rule -- takes effect Sept. 1, 2009 -- will require major structural modifications to B-pillars and doors.

The final rule, NHTSA said, "essentially requires sliding doors to have two latches." Adding a second latch will cost an average of $7 per door at an annual cost of $8.4 million.

More than 54,000 people are ejected each year from vehicles, according to NHTSA, with 15 percent thrown through doors.

Regulators at NHTSA estimate the new rule will save seven lives each year and four injuries may be prevented or reduced in severity as the result or a passenger remaining inside the vehicle.

In 2003, 1.4 million vans were sold with sliding doors. Almost half, 660,000 vans, do not meet the new standard.

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