Slower-Speed Air Bag Tests Hinted

In a move supported by auto makers, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration next week is expected to announce a requirement that a 25-mph crash test be used to check air bags.

But some consumer groups favor a 30-mph test, which they said would save lives by requiring air bags that deploy forcefully enough to protect unbelted adults in high-speed crashes.

Lower-speed bags “offer less protection,” said R. David Pittle, senior vice president and technical director for Consumers Union, which publishes Consumer Reports magazine.

Auto makers and other supporters, including the American Trauma Society and the National Assn. of Governors’ Highway Safety Representatives, say the 25-mph standard is better because it will ensure that bags don’t deploy so forcefully that they injure or kill children and small adults.

NHTSA officials refused to comment, saying an announcement would be made next week.

There have been 158 reported air bag fatalities, 92 of them children. But air bags have saved the lives of some 5,000 people since the 1980s, according to government statistics.

Until 1997, NHTSA required a 30-mph test to try to prevent deaths to passenger-side occupants due to air bag deployments, which often occurred in low-speed accidents. It made the test optional in 1997 and auto makers quickly installed less forceful air bags in cars.

Government data show that air bag deaths have dropped sharply for those model years.

Lance Roberts, spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, said that if the government required the 30-mph tests, “You’re right back to putting children and small-stature adults at risk for serious injury or death.

“It didn’t make any sense to jeopardize lives when the current air bag system is working,” he said.

NHTSA’s first draft of the rule included a return to the 30-mph standard by 2008.

The rule would have been phased in gradually, with auto makers allowed to use the slower speed until 2003.

But the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal reported Friday that the federal Office of Management and Budget, which reviews proposed rules, rejected that proposal, saying arguments for the 30-mph test were not convincing.

Under the rule, auto makers will be required to install air bags that inflate forcefully enough to cushion occupants as a car crashes into a solid wall at 25 mph.

Pittle said NHTSA officials have predicted 200 to 400 more fatalities because of the 25-mph test. “That’s an unnecessary cost to occupant safety,” he said.

Some consumer groups say auto makers could use sensors and dual-speed air bags to make sure the devices do not deploy too forcefully and harm children and smaller adults.

“Today’s technology allows auto makers to provide air bags that protect both unbelted adults in high-speed crashes as well as smaller occupants in low-speed crashes. It’s not a matter of either or,” Pittle said.

The new testing will also require that air bags protect a “family” of dummies instead of the average-sized male dummies currently used in all tests.

The rule also covers how air bags inflate when adults are involved in serious automobile crashes, as well as checking how they inflate in stationary tests when child dummies are positioned close to the instrument panel where the air bag comes out.