GLOBE EDITORIAL
High rollersCONSUMERS BUY sport utility vehicles in part because the public gives a higher priority to their perceived safety than to their low fuel efficiency, which makes them costly to run and adds to global warming and air pollution. But buyers might rethink the SUV's safety benefit if they had more information about the problem of rollovers.
Congress has finally required the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to provide specific test results on how prone different car, pickup, and SUV models are to rollovers. The challenge is to make this information more available and to set a standard for stability that all vehicles must meet.
This week the NHTSA released for the first time specific data on the percentage chance that a vehicle model will roll over in a one-vehicle accident. The best rated was a four-door Mazda RX-8, with an 8 percent chance; the worst was Rollovers kill more than 10,000 drivers and passengers a year, accounting for almost one-fourth of all highway deaths. Safety specialists are especially concerned with the toll that rollover accidents will take as families hand down their used SUVs to inexperienced teenagers. The first attempt in Congress to mandate a standard for rollover protection came in the mid-1980s, soon after SUVs came into widespread use, but the auto industry used its clout to block it. Even the more consumer-friendly Clinton administration backed off from a tough requirement both on rollover safety and protection of vehicle roofs in rollover accidents. Pressure for congressional action has been increasing, however, and the Senate version of the highway bill now in conference committee calls for several vehicle safety mandates, including one on rollover protection. That package would also require power windows that cannot accidentally strangle children and rear-visibility cameras so drivers (especially in high vehicles like SUVs) are less likely to run over children near their back wheels. Congress should make those measures part of the final legislation, and it should mandate that rollover tests on vehicles are done annually before a model year begins. The NHTSA could then require dealers to post the results on vehicle windows in showrooms, as fuel-efficiency ratings are now. The sticker ratings on rollovers should also help owners of used SUVs by making the driving public generally more conscious of the need to drive SUVs with extra care.
Congress has put industry profits above public safety for too long. It should insist on standards and more accessible consumer information on rollovers. © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
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