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Feds Delay Roof Strength Rule

By Joe Benton
ConsumerAffairs.com

May 29, 2007

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration officials are headed back to the drawing board to write the regulation that will require automakers to better protect passengers in rollovers.

NHTSA announced the delay in a notice posted on the Department of Transportation Web site. The agency said it will be unable to issue a final rule by August 31 on toughening roof crush resistance standards as the agency had promised.

NHTSA plans to issue a revised preliminary proposal by late September and finalize the rule by July 2008, as required by Congress.

NHTSA spokesman Rae Tyson told reporters the agency is conducting additional research in an effort to make sure it arrives at a workable regulation. "We want to get it right," he said.

The federal roof standard has not changed in more than 30 years despite NHTSA regulations updating most other major auto requirements.

Rollovers account for 3 percent of the nation's vehicle crashes and roughly 33 percent of fatalities. In 2005, rollover deaths increased 2.8 percent to 10,816.

In August 2005, NHTSA announced a proposal to require that a vehicle roof withstand a force equal to 2.5 times the vehicle weight while maintaining sufficient head room for an average adult male. The current standard requires a roof withstand 1.5 times of the vehicle weight.

Safety advocates at the time characterized the rule as inadequate and charged that the rule would not address the pressing need to save thousands of lives from rollover crashes.

The auto industry, however, is skeptical about the need to make roofs heavier and stronger pointing out tradeoffs in fuel economy and vehicle stability. Automakers said that the NHTSA proposal would add between 38 to 68 pounds to pickups and 60 to 67 pounds to larger SUVs. Going to a higher standard could add up to 270 pounds for light trucks.

NHTSA said the new timetable for a roof strength rule is to resubmit its rule to the Office of Management and Budget by the middle of June and publish the revised proposal by late September. NHTSA plans to give the public two months to comment.

Safety advocates are also pushing for new roof strength tests to accompany any new rule.

Joan Claybrook, a former NHTSA administrator who now heads Public Citizen, said a new test would do a better job of assessing the strength. "We don't like to see the delays, but we hope to get a test that lives up to what Congress required," Claybrook said.

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