The Nation - News from Nov. 19, 1987

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it will begin crash-testing light trucks in 1991, expanding its program to cover a rapidly growing segment of the automotive market. Under the new rule, trucks, vans and multipurpose vehicles with a gross weight of 8,500 pounds or less and an unloaded weight of up to 5,500 pounds must pass a 30-m.p.h. frontal crash test, during which front-seat manual safety belts “must be capable of providing certain levels of protection to a dummy.” Light trucks in the last decade have been an expanding segment of the market, with their share growing from 24% to nearly 33%. The agency also said it has extended passenger-car steering-column standards to light trucks, small buses and multipurpose vehicles.