NHTSA Publishes Priority Plan For Vehicle Safety Rulemaking
IVsource.net
1 August 2003

On July 21, the US Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) published its plan for vehicle safety rulemaking priorities.  The plan highlights the agency’s highest priority rulemaking actions aimed at addressing the most significant vehicle safety needs.

On July 21, the US Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) published its plan for vehicle safety rulemaking priorities, NHTSA Vehicle Safety Rulemaking Priorities and Supporting Research: 2003-2006. The plan highlights the agency’s highest priority rulemaking actions aimed at addressing the most significant vehicle safety needs.

“It is time to acknowledge that history is calling us to another important task.  It is the battle to stop the deaths and injuries on our roads and highways,” US Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta said.  "The Bush Administration is committed to improving safety on our highways – safety is our highest transportation priority.  This priority plan and the initiatives we proposed in our surface transportation reauthorization legislation respond to that call.”

“Our resources and precious dollars must be focused on measures that will save the most lives and prevent the most injuries,” said Dr. Jeffrey W. Runge, NHTSA Administrator.  “Our safety data make our priorities very clear.”

Runge’s comments are consistent with the speech he made at the National Intelligent Vehicle Initiative meeting in June, in which he made a strong call to continuing the effort to reduce crashes on the nation’s highways.  A significant new goal was announced -- a reduction in crashes per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, from the current 1.51 to 1.0 by 2008.  Achieving this would result in 4,000 fewer lives lost on the nation’s highways (42,350 fatalities occurred in 2002).  

Administrator Runge sees the pathway towards this ambitious goal as incorporating increased use of seat belts, continued reductions in impaired driving, and crash avoidance.  “Crash avoidance is truly the fertile ground for reaching this goal,” he said, noting that the “easy gains” have already been made in the seat belt usage and impaired driving areas during the last twenty years.

For the near term (2003-2004), NHTSA's priority regulatory issues include side crash protection, occupant ejection prevention in rollover crashes, roof crush resistance, glare from headlamps, rear seat center position safety belts, improved crash test dummies, head restraints, and fuel system integrity.

Longer term (2005-2006) testing, analysis, and potential rulemaking will address incompatibility in crashes between passenger cars and light trucks, electronic stability control, roadway departure collision avoidance systems, and driver distraction.

The plan is organized along several broad categories: light vehicle crash prevention and occupant protection, incompatibility between passenger cars and light trucks, heavy truck safety, and special populations protection.  The last category includes safety for children, people with disabilities, and older people.

The plan can be found on NHTSA’s web site at www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/rules/rulings or obtained from the Department of Transportation’s Docket Management System (website at dms.dot.gov), docket number NHTSA-2003-15505.

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