Activists highlight roof-crush concerns

Every year, 10,000 lives are lost in automobile rollovers; 24,000 passengers are seriously injured. It’s a problem that has long concerned Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, having frequently called on the government to issue stronger safety standards to protect occupants in vehicle rollovers.

We are far from alone. This week, many similar voices convened at a conference in Washington, D.C. in hopes of bringing more pressure on the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration to adopt stronger roof-crush safety standards.  The conference, entitled “Emergency World Summit on Roof Crush,” was put together by Paula Lawlor, a California mother of seven who has helped numerous attorneys around the country represent roof crush victims in their lawsuits against car manufacturers. Lawlor has many supporters, who call her the Erin Brockovich of the auto industry; she also has many detractors who say she is a tool of the trial attorneys.

    We’re not here to take sides on Lawlor. But we are pleased to see the attention being given to roof-crush safety, particularly as NHTSA prepares to issue its latest version of a new roof-crush safety proposal.  In November 2005, NHTSA issued a proposal to tighten the long-held standard that has required cars up to 6,000 pounds to meet a static weight test. In that test, a metal plate is pressed on a vehicle’s roof to show it can support at least 1.5 times the vehicle’s weight. Under the 2005 proposal, NHTSA said it would increase the weight ratio to 2.5 times a vehicle’s weight — and make that standard apply to vehicles weighing up to 10,000 pounds, thus making SUVs and pickups comply with roof-crush rules.

Now, NHTSA has indicated that in a few weeks it expects to issue a supplement to its 2005 proposal — a sign that significant changes probably have been made. We hope these changes will include a requirement for a dynamic roof-crush test — one that involves a moving vehicle — to simulate the point of impact for each specific vehicle. Doing so would measure the depth of the caved-in roof and determine how well seat belts and side curtain airbags protect occupants in rollovers. This test would assess the whole vehicle in a real world dynamic situation where many factors come into play and not just rely on a static test that may not fully represent the factors that lead to fatalities in vehicle rollovers. For more details, please see the testimony we submitted to NHTSA two years ago.

Related entries:

• It's official: DOT rule will require stability control by 2012
• Raising the roof standard for rollover safety