SMU is mentioned on the AOL Bloomberg version:
U.S. to Allow Inflatable Side Head Protection in Vehicles
Washington, July 30 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. highway safety regulators are changing crash test standards to allow automakers to use inflatable side restraint devices to protect car occupants' heads in side impact crashes.
While the new test standards will not require automakers to use the more sophisticated devices, U.S. Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater said it will ''enable car manufacturers to bring life-saving technology to motorists quickly.''
European automakers Volvo, BMW and Daimler-Benz are already using the more sophisticated head protection devices in some of their cars.
Regulators last modified vehicle occupant head protection standards in August 1995, with a requirement that additional protection for occupants' heads be built into the side rails and roofs of passenger cars and trucks. The previous standard applied only to the vehicle interior in front of the front seat occupants. The 1995 rule requires compliance beginning on Sept. 1, 1998.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration officials said many automakers, at least initially, will meet the 1995 standard by installing additional padding in the side rails, pillars and roof components of automobiles.
Under the new test standard released today, autos that have the inflatable side protection devices will not be required to have as much padding in the side and roof components. National Highway Traffic Safety Administrator Ricardo Martinez said padding is incompatible with the new devices, since in would slow their deployment. Cars with the inflatable devices will be required to provide a higher degree of protection than padding in higher-speed, or about 18 mile-per-hour, crash tests.
The head protection standard is expected to save as many as 1,200 lives a year, prevent as many as 975 head injuries and yield $900 million in savings for auto and health insurers.
Martinez said preliminary roll-over tests show that the inflatable devices have the additional advantage of preventing the vehicle occupant from ejection in some crashes.
A beneficiary of the new test standard is Phoenix, Arizona- based *Simula, Inc.,* which manufactures inflatable tubular restraint systems.
Mercedes-Benz said its 1999 E-Class sedans, which go on sale next month, will be the first vehicles on the market with ''curtain-like'' devices that will deploy to cover the entire side of the passenger compartment in the event of a side-impact crash.
Big Three
NHTSA officials said Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp. and Chrysler Corp. don't have models this year with the new inflatable side restraints, though U.S. manufacturers have signaled they are looking at the more sophisticated restraints for future model years.
There has been some concern that air bags, the devices that protect drivers and front-seat passengers in a head-on and rear collisions, aren't safe for everyone. Last November, the DOT issued a rule that would give car owners the option of having switches installed to turn off air bags, after a number of children and small-statured adults died in low-speed accidents when the devices deployed.
NHTSA Chief Counsel Phil Recht said that the ''less aggressive'' side-protection devices do not pose a similar risk, since they deploy at far lower speeds than air bags, some of which burst from dashboards and steering wheels at speeds of up to 200 miles per hour.
And air bags, Martinez and Recht repeated today, provide a significant safety benefit, as long as drivers and front seat passengers are properly wearing their seat belts. The DOT has been saying for some time that children under the age of 12 belong in the back seat.
Last month, NHTSA regulators issued proposed standards for a crash test dummy the size of an average six-year-old child to be used when determining whether new automobiles meet federal crashworthiness standards.
Regulators hope the new dummy will give them a fuller picture of the risks that air bags pose to unbelted or child passengers. The dummy will have a ''highly instrumented neck'' that more accurately recreates the movement of a human child's neck and head in the event of a crash.
Martinez said today that regulators will soon release design standards for several new members of the crash test dummy ''family,'' including a small-statured adult female and a 10- month-old child.
13:03:35 07/30/1998 |
