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NHTSA Nixes New Crash Tests

December 20, 2005

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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) will keep the system it now uses to help consumers evaluate the safety of new automobiles in head-on collisions, despite repeated criticism that the present test is inadequate, outdated, misleading and in need of upgrading.

New vehicles will continue to be subjected to a 35 mile-per-hour test for frontal crashes. NHTSA will also maintain the full-frontal barrier test procedure, the current crash test dummies and rating system.

NHTSA conducts front and side impact tests on vehicles and rates them on a scale of one to five stars with five stars representing the top score. The tests are supposed to help consumers judge how a vehicle handles a crash or its likelihood of rolling over. Critics of the test point out that too many vehicles receive four or five stars, reducing the comparative value of the tests.

A report in April by the Government Accountability Office says the crash test program needs upgrades due to the growth in popularity of sport utility vehicles and light trucks. The report underscored that too many vehicles receive four and five stars.

The GAO report also questioned whether the system gives automakers enough incentives to improve vehicle safety.

NHTSA considered increasing the testing speed to 40 mph and including dummies that are more representative of women and children likely to be riding in a car or SUV. The plan also included an additional test that focused the impact on one side of the vehicle's front end. That test would have simulated the many t-bone accidents that occur at intersections through the country.

The present testing program began in 1978. NHTSA officials insist that more research is needed to "until we have established the sound science necessary to provide a basis for revising the program."

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