And the government is caught in the middle. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is currently seeking comments on its proposed revised standards for roof strength. Well, it got them.
A new study from The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety said that the proposed federal guidelines are inadequate. Now Public Citizenhas chimed in: "NHTSA has chosen to fiddle around at the margins instead of overhauling its outdated safety standard to reflect the best protection possible for the public. The Institute’s study echoes our urgent warnings to the agency that its proposed increase of the roof strength standard from
1.5 to 2.5 times unloaded vehicle weight will not meet the public’s need for safety."
The IIHS study claims that more than 200 deaths could have been prevented in rollovers in 2006 if just a few more SUVs had roofs as strong as the best one the Institute tested. More than 9,000 people died in rollover crashes in 2006.
The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, an industry trade group for automakers, begs to differ with these protests. A spokesperson told ABC News that the IIHS study was based on "flawed analysis," and that "there remains no definitive answer as to what effect roof strength has on injury risk in rollover crashes."
Sources: Automotive News, NHTSA, Public Citizen, AAM, ABC News
Photo: msprague licensed under Creative Commons Share Alike 2.0
