The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is looking for at a number of safety improvements to passenger cars and trucks, including increased use of electronic stability control, safer pickups, enough seatbelts to go around and better safety ratings.
At the top of the list is finding a way to write performance standards that will encourage if not compel automakers to increase the number of vehicles equipped with electronic stability control systems.
Electronic stability management automatically brakes individual wheels and adjusts throttles in emergencies. The system helps motorists stay in their lanes and on the road, where they are less likely to roll over.
Automotive engineers confidently predict that greater use of electronic stability control would reduce crashes, but the NHTSA crash test rating system does not always substantiate the engineering view.
Pickups
While SUVs are now more stable and less likely to roll-over, more people are using pickups as passenger vehicles rather than work trucks and the feds think that automakers should do more to make pickups less likely to roll over.
Improving the rollover resistance of pickups will be difficult because people who use them for work need load-carrying capacity and towing capability. These factors dictate engineering and design qualities that are quite different from passenger vehicle standards.
Cars continue to get the best rollover ratings, and minivans generally are close behind.
Seatbelts
NHTSA regulators are taking a stand on their rules meant to ensure every vehicle occupant has a seat belt. The agency is taking a tough line with back seats designed for two passengers that have room enough for three.
NHTSA is proposing to rewrite the definition of a seat because safety problems can arise when a third person squeezes into the rear seat of a vehicle with only two seat belts.
Examples of back seats with two belts that three people can cram into include the Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro and two-door Ford Explorer.
Safety experts warn that when this happens, not only is the person in the middle not wearing a belt, the two people in the outside seats are less likely to wear their seat belts as well.
Even worse is when two people cram into a single seatbelt -- a potential disaster in an accident, especially if one of the people is a child. The smaller person could be crushed by the larger one.
NHTSA proposes that automakers put a lap and shoulder belt in the middle or make it uncomfortably clear that a passenger ought not sit there. Regulators predict that carmakers would probably opt against adding the seat belt.
Current law, written in the late-1970s, says only that restraint systems be provided for any seat likely to be used by a passenger.
The agency is also proposing seat belt requirements for side-facing seats and other auxiliary positions.
Safety Ratings
Car buyers who would like a grade to judge for safety are not going to find that rating at NHTSA anytime soon.
While NHTSA is considering changes to its front-impact and side-impact crash tests, a single safety score is no longer a priority.
The idea of a safety score that would be published on the window sticker is controversial. The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers says its probably a good idea that NHTSA dropped the proposal as a priority. Even some consumer representatives think a single grade, to be meaningful, would be difficult to achieve.
