CORPORATE CRIME REPORTER
Senator
Pryor to Hold Hearing on NHTSA Roof Crush Standard
22 Corporate Crime Reporter 19, May 7, 2008
The federal safety agency is about to pull the trigger on a new roof crush standard.
And Senator Mark Pryor (D-Arkansas) is not at all happy with it.
He has scheduled hearings on the issue for June 4.
Pryor is chair of the Senate Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Consumer Affairs, Insurance, and Automotive Safety.
The current roof crush standard requires the roof to support 1.5 times the weight of the vehicle.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) new proposed standard would require roofs to support 2.5 times the weight of the vehicle.
Auto safety critics say such a standard won’t do the job – that 75 percent of automobiles currently on the road could meet the 2.5 standard.
They are calling for a standard that would require roofs to support at least four times the weight of the vehicle.
And they are outraged because the auto industry has slipped into the proposed standard a provision that would preempt state product liability tort law if the automaker meets the new standard.
“This is a terrible provision,” said Byron Bloch, an auto safety design consultant based in Potomac, Maryland. “This is treachery by the auto companies and NHTSA. The proposed preemption rule would deprive car crash victims of their rights to pursue justice and compensation – to present their case in court to a jury.”
Bloch said that the preemption provision was slipped into the proposed standard MVSS 216 sometime in 2005 by Bush administration officials with ties to the auto industry.
Bloch said that from the beginning, the Bush administration has had strong ties to the automobile industry.
Three of the key players:
Andrew Card, a former General Motors vice president for governmental relations, who went on to become White House chief of staff.
Jeffrey Rosen, a former auto industry lawyer at Kirkland & Ellis, who was the general counsel at the Department of Transportation at the time the preemption provision was inserted. Rosen is now general counsel at the Office of Management and Budget.
And Jacqueline Glassman, a former Chrysler attorney who went on to become NHTSA deputy administrator. She’s currently a partner at Hogan & Hartson in Washington, D.C.
Bloch says that when Rosen was asked how the preemption provision got into the proposed rule, Rosen told a reporter that he “did not want to get into the specifics of who said what to whom.”
There is growing grassroots and institutional opposition to the roof crush preemption rule.
In December 2005, the Attorneys General of 26 states called on NHTSA to strip the preemption language from the proposed rule.
“NHTSA’s preemption position impinges directly on state court jurisdiction in an area traditionally and historically reserved for the states,” the Attorneys General wrote. “The state common law court system serves as a vital check on government-imposed safety standards. NHTSA’s proposal is likely to erode manufacturer incentives to assure that vehicles are safe as possible for their intended use.”
And a group of auto safety advocates have set up the People Safe in Rollover Foundation to push for a stronger standard.
They have drafted proposed legislation.
And they have even purchased space on a roadside billboard in Pryor’s hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas.
The billboard reads: Enact Law for Strong Roofs: Thousands Die and Thousands are Catastrophically Injured Unnecessarily from Roof Crush in Rollovers Annually.
The foundation’s executive director is Paula Lawlor, a researcher for trial lawyers representing victims of rollover crashes.
“Senator Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) asked us to draft legislation, and we did,” Lawlor said. “We’re hoping Congress passes this legislation before NHTSA implements its proposed rule.”
In 2005, 43,200 Americans were killed in motor vehicle crashes.
Less than five percent of these vehicle crashes are rollovers.
But the rollover crashes account for fully 25 percent of the total yearly fatalities – 10,816 in 2005.
Bloch said that the vast majority of rollover fatalities and injuries are the result of the roofs crushing down on the passengers – or when the roof crush shatters the side window glass, allowing deadly ejections to occur.
Bloch said that in addition to the almost 11,000 fatalities a year from roof crush accidents, in 2005 the total number of quadriplegic injuries in motor vehicle collisions totaled 5,608 according to the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center in Birmingham, Alabama.
A significant number of those are due to roof crush in rollovers, Bloch said.
Bloch said that the auto companies know how to make safe roofs, but only eight vehicles currently on the road meet his proposed standard of a strength to weight ratio of four to one or more.
According to Bloch, those vehicles are: The 2006 Volkswagen Jetta has an SWR (5.1 to one), the 2007 Toyota Scion tC SWR (4.6 to one), the 2006 Volvo XC 90 (4.6 to one), the 2006 Honda Civic (4.5 to one), the 2007 Toyota Tacoma pickup truck (4.4 to one) the 2006 Mazda 5 (4.4 to one), the 2007 Toyota Camry (4.3 to one), and the 2007 Toyota Yaris – it’s a small inexpensive car – (4.0 to one).
“So, there are only eight cars with strength to weight ratios of four or better,” Bloch said.
“And one is a small inexpensive automobile. And yet, if you look at the Dodge Ram pickup truck and the Ford F250 pick-up truck, their strength to weight ratio is 1.7 to one.”
[For a complete transcript of the Interview with Byron Bloch, see 22 Corporate Crime Reporter 19, May 12, 2008, print edition only.]
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