New NHTSA Rollover Rules: Now How Much Would You Pay?
The Detroit News reports that the NHTSA’s upgrade of roof crush strength standards will add $1.4 billion to the cost of new cars industry-wide, but will save 135 lives per year. Based on the NHTSA’s numbers, the costs will come out to about $54 per vehicle in design costs and another $15 to $62 in added fuel costs. In other words, even the NHTSA admits that uprated roof strength tests do trade off with fuel economy.
To our list of complaints with the uprated standard (and US safety standards in general), now add this: The final regulation boosts the requirement to three times the weight for vehicles up to 6,000 pounds, but vehicles 6,000-10,000 pounds must meet a 1.5 times standard. Huh? It’s not that tiered standards are inherently bad, but why tier them by weight rather than, say, rollover risk?
The AAM, an industry lobbying group, says it “supports NHTSA’s goal of enhancing rollover safety through a comprehensive plan aimed at eliminating rollover injuries and fatalities, and enhanced roof strength is only one part of that plan.” Which is pretty tame considering even the DetN reports that “General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. essentially wrote the regulation that’s been in effect since 1973 after their fleets failed NHTSA’s first proposed standard in 1971.”
More by Edward Niedermeyer
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I don't have a problem adding $60 to the price of my new car to prevent 135 deaths. The problem is like others have said, with the huge pillar deaths will likely increase.
the money isn't the problem folks its adding all that extra weight to the top of the vehicle. this destroys vehicle dynamics. this is why I hate sunroofs. Get a god damned convertible if you want some sun.