The U.S. Department of Trans-portation (DOT) proposed new rules requiring head protection in side impact crashes and it proposed changes in crash-test dummy design that would alter the way automobiles are crash tested.
DOT Secretary Norman Y. Mineta announced the changes on May 13.
The DOT’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) developed the proposed upgrade to Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 214, which would require auto manufacturers to provide head protection in side crashes for the first time. It would also enhance thorax and pelvis protection for a wider range of vehicle occupants involved in such crashes.
Also for the first time the NHTSA would require the use of a dummy representing a small adult female in side-impact crash test and a new and more technically advanced dummy representing an average-height adult male would also be used in such crash testing.
Speaking at a Washington press conference, NHTSA Administrator Jeffrey W. Runge, M.D., presented estimates that the change would save 700 to 1,000 lives per year. The NHTSA also estimates that, in serious side-impact crashes involving at least one fatality, nearly 60 percent of those killed have suffered brain injuries, which the primary reason the rule change has been proposed.
The agency will not require specific technologies to meet the new performance standards.
The proposed regulatory upgrade could become a final rule as early as 2005, with a phase-in for all new vehicles beginning four years after publication of a final rule.
The new rule would add a more rigorous test for side crashes into a tree or pole.
Manufacturers will have to meet performance standards involving a 20-mph vehicle side impact into a rigid pole at an approach angle of 75 degrees.
In order to better judge “real-world” effects of side collision a new female crash-test dummy called for in the proposed rule represents a 4-ft. 11-in. woman. The expectation is that the use of this dummy—and a more technically advanced male dummy—will expand development of head and thorax side-impact protection systems for more of the population.
NHTSA will accept comments on this notice of proposed rulemaking for the next 150 days. The rule is available for reading at www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/rules/rulings/sideimpact/index.html and written comments concerning it should be sent to the DOT Docket Facility, Attn: Docket No. NHTSA 2004-17694, Room PL-401, 400 Seventh St., S.W., Washington, DC 20590-0001, or faxed to (202) 493-2251. The notice also will be available for viewing at http://dms.dot.gov/. Comments may also be submitted electronically via that Web site.
