
NHTSA Changes Strategy from Safety Features to Crash Prevention
by Guest Blogger, 7/26/2004
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has announced that it will drop its emphasis on making vehicles safer in crashes in favor of a new focus on "crash prevention."
"I'd like to begin to focus on the event before the crash," NHTSA administrator Jeffrey Runge
href="http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/nhtsa/announce/speeches/040511Runge/SAE-Present.pdf">told the Society of Automotive Engineers in Washington last May. "We may have plateaued out in terms of crashworthiness."
Whereas NHTSA regulatory initiatives for the last 34 years have sought to boost
crash protection devices, such as seatbelts and airbags, which mitigate the harm
from crashes, the new safety devices to be tested and implemented by NHTSA seek
to avoid a crash altogether. These devices use new "smart technology" currently
touted by car manufacturers and available in high-end vehicles to avoid, among
other things, rollovers, drifting in lanes, and drowsy drivers. One such measure
being considered is electronic stability control, which adjusts a vehicle's
braking and steering in an emergency, reducing the chance of rollover.
Though safety advocates approve of any new attempts to increase the safety
of vehicles, many have expressed concern that NHTSA is abandoning its historic
mission of protecting passengers in a crash. They also dispute NHTSA's claim
that there are no further advances to be made in crash protection. According
to NHTSA officials, a new proposed rule on side-curtain air bags may be the
last major crash-protection regulation. The shift in NHTSA's policy is already
evident in its
href="http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/departments/nrd-01/projectsummaries.htm
l">research and development projects, which focus increasingly on crash avoidance
technology.
