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Slater Announces Proposal to Improve Air Bag Safety

15 September 1998

Transportation Secretary Slater Announces Proposal to Preserve, Enhance Benefits of Air Bags and Reduce Risks

    WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 -- Continuing the comprehensive plan to
improve air bag safety, U.S. Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater today
announced an historic proposal to require 21st century technology to preserve
and enhance the benefits of air bags while reducing the risks associated with
them.
    "Safety is President Clinton's highest transportation priority, and this
proposal will help prepare the way for better air bags," Secretary Slater
said. "It continues our comprehensive series of actions, begun in 1995,
requiring protection for a wide range of motor vehicle occupants involved in
crashes."
    The proposal by the department's National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration (NHTSA) would require additional air bag system performance
tests for passenger cars and light trucks in order to provide maximum
protection for properly seated adults and reduced risks for infants, young
children and adults who get too close to inflating air bags.
    "This proposal will improve safety and give automakers maximum flexibility
to pursue effective technological solutions," said NHTSA Administrator Ricardo
Martinez, M.D.
    Though air bags are expected to save more than 3,000 lives per year when
every vehicle is equipped with them, new information and better science
provided by the advanced air bag proposal will save additional lives by
overcoming the limitations of the sled test and previous injury criteria.
    Proposed crash tests would incorporate a new crash test dummy family with
improved injury criteria that better represents human tolerances. The family
includes 1-, 3- and 6-year-old child dummies, a small (5th percentile) female
dummy, and an average size (50th percentile) male dummy.
    The advanced air bag proposal calls for additional tests to reduce the
risks to infants, children and out-of-position adults. The proposal also
includes full car crash tests to preserve and enhance the current level of air
bag protection. The only currently required test is a 30 mph crash into a
barrier or an optional sled test which does not destroy the vehicle, both
using only an average size male dummy.
    Dr. Martinez cautioned that advanced air bags will never eliminate the
need for vehicle occupants to use seat belts. Even in vehicles with advanced
air bags, the back seat still will be the safest seating position for
children, and young children should still be transported in safety seats or
booster seats appropriate for their age, he said.
    The rulemaking announced today proposes a phase-in schedule for these
requirements. Under the proposal, manufacturers would be required to comply
with the new standard beginning with Model Year 2003 vehicles. Twenty-five
percent of each automakers' production beginning Sept. 1, 2002, would be
required to meet the new standard; 40 percent of MY 2004 production would be
required to meet the new standard; 70 percent of MY 2005; and all MY 2006
passenger cars and light trucks would be required to meet the new standard.
    The proposal is in NHTSA's Docket No. 98-4405. Interested parties may
comment on the proposal within 90 days of publication of this proposal in the
Federal Register. NHTSA will schedule a public meeting on the proposal later
in the comment period. A separate Federal Register notice will be published
announcing details of this meeting.