High Court Refuses to Toughen Air Bag, Seat Belt Standards

The Supreme Court today refused to order the Reagan Administration to adopt tougher standards for installing air bags or automatic seat belts in new cars.

The court, without comment, rejected an appeal by New York officials who accused the Administration of sacrificing “life and limb on the roads.”

Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Hanford Dole adopted a so-called passive restraint rule in 1984 that would phase in the use of air bags or automatic seat belts.

Auto makers are required to equip 10% of this year’s models with either air bags or seat belts that automatically wrap around a front-seat occupant. The percentage is increased annually until all new cars are to be equipped with the devices during the 1990 model year that begins in 1989.

But the Department of Transportation on March 25 granted car makers an extra four years, until 1993, to install air bags or other automatic restraints on both sides of new cars if they agree to install bags on at least the driver’s side by 1989.

5 Million by 1992

The insurance industry has estimated that, with the extension, 2 million domestic and foreign cars in the United States will be equipped with driver-side air bags by the 1990 model year and 5 million by 1992, up from about 100,000 vehicles in the current model year.

In the appeal acted on today, New York officials said the 1984 rule is not nearly strict enough.

The court “should redirect the Department of Transportation’s attention to its pre-eminent function--protection of life and limb on the roads--and away from its excessive reliance on what the automobile industry finds expedient,” New York Atty. Gen. Robert Abrams said.

He added that the Department of Transportation estimated in 1984 that requiring air bags in all new cars would save up to 9,110 lives and could prevent more than 155,000 serious injuries each year.

The figures are somewhat lower for automatic seat belts.

More Deaths Predicted

Abrams said Dole’s regulation “will result in thousands of additional highway deaths and tens of thousands of serious injuries each year.”

Federal officials rejected stricter rules because of the additional cost and the possibility that the public would not accept them.

Dole said air bags will cost $320 more per car than manual belts and more than $800 to replace.

She also said that there are public fears over chemicals used to make the air bags inflate and that they might inflate accidentally.

Also, she said, some people might reject the idea because they feel insecure without a seat belt around them.

Ruling Against Administration

The court in 1983 ruled that the Reagan Administration unlawfully lifted an earlier requirement for air bags and automatic seat belts. The justices said then that the Administration did not do a good enough job justifying its 1981 decision to rescind the earlier rules.

Dole’s response to that ruling was adoption of the 1984 regulations.

The court also said it will consider overturning a $200,000 award won by evangelist Jerry Falwell against Hustler magazine and its publisher, Larry Flynt.

The justices will decide whether the award for Falwell’s “emotional distress” caused by an advertising spoof in Hustler violated the magazine’s free-speech rights. The court’s decision, not expected until sometime in 1988, could yield important guidelines on the legal protections afforded satire and parody.