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Report: NHTSA Seeks More Time for Roof-Crush Rule

Safety agency under fire over long-delayed proposal

By Joseph S. Enoch
ConsumerAffairs.com

June 23, 2008

An official familiar with the decision told the newspaper the agency will send Congress a letter requesting more time to work on the rule, which the agency was originally charged to overhaul in 2005.

Three senators sent a letter Thursday to Transportation Secretary Mary Peters asking for a delay in development of the proposal. NHTSA is an agency within the Department of Transportation.

“We are writing to express our concerns with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA’s) proposed rule on vehicle roof strength,” Senators Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), Danielle Inouye (D-Hawaii) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) wrote in last week's letter.

“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.”

NHTSA spokesman Rae Tyson said he cannot confirm the validity of the Detroit News report because “no letter has been sent yet.”

“We have a July 1 deadline to either submit the proposed rule or request a delay,” Tyson said. “We will be informing the (Congressional) committees of our intention fairly soon.”

The current rule has not been substantially updated in 35 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.

The upgraded proposal as it was written would have required 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.

One of the most controversial aspects of the proposed rule was a preemption clause that would have prevented consumers from suing manufacturers after death or injury in a rollover.

“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 in their letter.

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

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.”

At a June 4 hearing, 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 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.”

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