Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

After being bogged down by bureaucracy and industry concerns for years, federal automobile roof crush standards finally became tougher. U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced the new roof strength standards last week. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that the new standards, which are double the current standards for vehicles weighing up to 6,000 pounds, “will significantly strengthen vehicle roof standards and improve rollover crash protection.”

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Consumer and safety advocates nationwide are praising President Obama’s reported nomination of Chuck Hurley to serve as the next leader of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration – the government agency that sets the standards for automobile roof crush strength. Actually, setting roof crush standards is not something the NHTSA has done much of since 1971 — the year it established the alarmingly weak standards that are still on the books today. Safety advocates hope that Hurley will overhaul the weak standards, which were written so many decades ago, by the auto companies and for the auto companies.

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KGTV of San Diego recently published the tragically characteristic story of Luis Pena, a California border patrol agent whose truck rolled over a year and a half ago while he was driving one night while on duty. His truck’s roof caved in, compacting Pena’s body and crushing his spine.

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For years, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers have resisted even the slightest boost in roof crush standards. Now, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has stepped in to raise the bar on roof strength standards.

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A couple of weeks ago we reported that Paula Lawlor, founder of the nonprofit organization People Safe in Rollovers, was given the honor Consumer Advocate of the Year by Consumer Attorneys of San Diego. A former legal assistant, Lawlor has spent a decade pressuring government and automobile manufacturers to the toughen standards for automobile roof crush resistance.

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Paula Lawlor, founder of the nonprofit organization People Safe in Rollovers, is being honored by the Consumer Attorneys of San Diego as Consumer Advocate of the Year. Lawlor is a resident of Del Mar, California in San Diego County. She has worked as a consumer safety advocate for 10 years, pressuring government and automobile manufacturers to improve the strength of automobile roofs.

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An activist and advocate for higher automobile roof strength standards believes that the federal government’s latest delay will ultimately benefit the consumer.

As we have reported in the past, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), a branch of the Department of Transportation, decided in 2005 to boost its archaic standards for roof strength, issuing a deadline of mid-2008 to accomplish that.

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In November, we reported that federal U.S. standards for vehicle roof safety were dangerously low, and that the decision to raise the standards, even just to a level still inferior to that of many foreign auto manufacturers, has been continually delayed. Then, just yesterday we speculated as to whether a bailout of the auto industry would mean better, safer American cars.

Unfortunately, it looks as if the Department of Transportation is just as dysfunctional as the American auto industry in its ability to do the right thing … or anything at all.

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The American standard for automobile roof strength, which has been in effect since the 1970s, has been “a total, ineffective disaster,” according to automobile expert Byron Bloch in an investigative report by WBNS TV of Columbus, Ohio.

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On June 2, 2008, after many years of prodding by consumer advocacy groups and attorneys, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued a consumer advisory concerning aging tires. This follows numerous lawsuits involving Explorer/Firestone rollovers, which made the public aware of the potential dangers of tire aging. Additional industry documents and studies have made clear that tires more than six years old are hazardous to drivers, and can result in tread separations, crashes and rollovers.

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