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Senators Seek Delay in New Roof Strength Safety Rules

Safety agency's proposed standard said to be too weak

By Joseph S. Enoch
ConsumerAffairs.com

June 19, 2008

In a letter to Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters, Senators Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Danielle Inouye (D-Hawaii) said: “We are writing to express our concerns with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA’s) proposed rule on vehicle roof strength. We also write to encourage you to extend the current deadline for issuance of the final rule and set a new date for that purpose. ... we believe that an extension is necessary to best protect the American public.”

The current rule has not been updated in more than 30 years. It requires that a vehicle roof be able to withstand 1.5 times the weight of the vehicle, applied slowly to one side of the roof by a static crusher, without intruding more than five inches into the passenger cabin.

Consumer advocates blame that standard – and the multitude of American cars that barely pass it – on the nearly 10,000 annual deaths that result from vehicle rollovers.

“American auto companies want a weak standard that will kill more Americans and produce more quadriplegics and paraplegics,” Ralph Nader, a longtime consumer advocate who is running for president as an independent in 2008, told ConsumerAffairs.com in an earlier interview.

The new proposal, which is currently scheduled to be issued July 1, would require that a vehicle's roof withstand 2.5 times the weight of the vehicle, applied by a static crusher to both sides of the vehicle's roof.

Rights denied

The proposed standard is expected to include a preemption clause that would prohibit consumers from filing lawsuits against automakers whose vehicles kill or injure those in rollovers.

“If this provision (preemption) is included in any final rule, this would constitute an unprecedented incursion upon the Constitutional rights of consumers, who will remain uncompensated for the needless deaths and injuries that occur due to the foreseeable negligence of manufacturers,” the Senators wrote to Peters.

The Senators also requested that the upgraded rule require all vehicles sold in the U.S. to pass a dynamic rollover test, which would more accurately replicate the violent force of a real rollover by flipping the car onto its roof, rather than just slowly pressing a metal plate onto the roof.

Some luxury European and Japanese vehicles, such as Saab, Mitsubishi and Volvo already perform these tests on some models.

In past interviews NHTSA and automaker representatives have told ConsumerAffairs.com that dynamic tests are not used because they are not repeatable.

Shroud of secrecy

The Senators also questioned NHTSA's proposed 2.5 strength-to-weight ratio and the shroud of secrecy which the agency worked under for years while developing these new rules.

“Given the lack of data and clear explanation from the NHTSA supporting the need for this strength-to-weight ratio (SWR) standard, it is difficult to think that the selection of this number was anything more than arbitrary,” the Senators wrote. “In addition to appearing to be an arbitrary choice, the minimal impact that such a test is estimated to have on saving lives is also of great concern to us. The NHTSA’s own estimates are that a 2.5 SWR standard would only save between 13 to 44 lives a year. The NHTSA does not conduct similar estimates or analysis for other SWRs, such as 2.0, 3.0, 3.5, or 4.0.”

In a hearing June 4, Coburn, who admitted to being a pro-industry advocate, suggested Congress step in and fix the rule if the agency “can't do it properly.”

The three Senators suggested in the letter that NHTSA “take all needed time to correct these problems in the final rule and issue a strong and effective safety standard that follows Congressional intent and will significantly save lives and reduce injury.”

The letter was made public late this afternoon and secretary Peters' office did not return a phone call for comment in time for publication.

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