Auto Side-Impact Standards to Be Applied to Light Trucks, Vans

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Wednesday that it will require all light-duty trucks, vans, buses and sport-utility vehicles made after September, 1993, to meet the same side-impact standards as passenger cars.

Administrator Jerry Ralph Curry said extending the side-impact requirement to those vehicles makes sense because so many of the vehicles are bought in place of automobiles.

He estimated that the new standard, most likely to be met by installing side door beams, would add between $50 and $70 to the cost of each vehicle.

The government is also requiring that all light-duty trucks, vans, buses and sport-utility vehicles made after September, 1991, be equipped with head restraints and rear shoulder belts, where applicable.

Those vehicles must meet roof-crush standards and have center-mounted brake lights for the 1994 model year. Passive restraints will be phased in, under a safety administration requirement, between 1995 and 1998, agency spokesman Tim Hurd said.

Many light-duty trucks, especially minivans, already meet those standards.

In a separate report, the government agency said crash tests between small and large cars showed that occupants of small cars are twice as likely to suffer serious injury or death in head-on crashes as those in large cars.

Hurd said one test involved a collision between a 2,000-pound Suzuki Swift, which is similar to the Geo Metro sold by Chevrolet, and a 4,000-pound Ford Crown Victoria. The second involved a 2,300-pound Subaru Justy and another Crown Victoria.