U.S. Proposes ‘Smart’ Air Bag Timetable

The Transportation Department on Monday proposed giving auto manufacturers four years to design and install “smart” air bags that it believes would prevent scores of deaths each year, cost $22 to $162 more per car than today’s air bags to install and save on costly repair jobs.

“Today’s advanced air bag proposal significantly raises the bar on safety,” Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater said.

The new air bags would be required to protect adults in serious crashes, as present air bags are. But if weight sensors detected a child or smaller adult in the front seat, the bags might inflate more slowly or--in minor crashes--not at all.

To test the devices, car makers would employ an entire “family” of crash-test dummies: a 1-year-old in a car seat, 3- and 6-year-old siblings, a 110-pound woman and a 170-pound man. Currently, only a male dummy is used.

The new requirements would be likely to spur an engineering competition among manufacturers. Some experts believe that air bag design could become a comparison item for car, minivan and light truck buyers. “Not all air bags are created equal,” said Clarence Ditlow of the Center for Auto Safety.

Auto makers objected Monday, saying that the rule would keep a safety test they have argued should be eliminated--the 30-mile-an-hour crash into an immovable barrier. It is that test, they say, that requires them to keep building dangerously powerful air bags.

Ricardo Martinez, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, called that criticism “specious” and said it is not backed up by the agency’s testing.

Consumer groups voiced support for the proposed rule, as did Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.).

Since their introduction in the early 1990s, air bags have saved an estimated 3,448 lives, although 113 people, 66 of them children, have died while using them.

If all cars had air bags--and fewer than half do--according to government estimates, 3,215 of 42,000 people killed each year on the roads would be saved. With “smart” air bags, the estimate of the number of lives saved grows by 7%, to 3,454.

A cost-benefit analysis by National Highway Transportation Safety Administration also shows that the price increase for better air bags would be largely offset by savings in repair costs because air bags would deploy less frequently. The agency estimates savings of as much as $158 over the lifetime of the average car.

“Property damage savings have the potential to offset all, or nearly all, of the cost of meeting this proposal,” the agency said. Driver and passenger air bags now usually cost $400 to $500 per car.

The federal safety rule would not mandate a particular design. Instead, it would set injury limits for belted and unbelted dummies in certain types of crash tests. These tests include slamming into an immovable barrier--usually a heavy steel plate--and crashing into a barrier that crumples.

The government bought six 1998 models with lower-powered air bags--Taurus, Explorer, Neon, Camry, Accord and Caravan--and crashed them into a fixed barrier. Only the Neon--and that car just on the passenger side--failed to pass this crash test.

Barry Felrice, a lobbyist for the Big Three auto makers, said that the industry would continue to lobby for changes during the 90-day comment period before the rule becomes final. “Our bottom line is that Chrysler, Ford and General Motors favor introducing advanced air bags,” he said.

Introduction of the safer air bags would be phased in starting with 25% of cars for the 2003 model year. By the 2006 model year, all new cars would be required to have advanced air bags.