8

DRIVE

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2015

AUTO SAFETY RATINGS

TO INCLUDE COLLISION PREVENTION SYSTEMS

BY JOAN LOWY

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON The
government has announced
plans to update its safety
rating system for new
cars and trucks to include
whether the vehicle has
technology to avoid crashes,
in addition to how well
it protects occupants in
accidents.
The 5-star rating system
now uses crash tests to
assess how well people inside
are shielded from injury
or death in front, side and
rollover crashes.
While that will remain a
big factor in the ratings, they
also will take into account
whether the vehicle has
nine technologies that can
help prevent or lessen the
severity of crashes. Those
technologies include sensors
that can detect an imminent
frontal collision and apply
the brakes, or warn drivers
about vehicles in their blind
spots or that theyre drifting
into another lane.
Some technologies
automatically switch
headlight high beams to low
beams when another vehicle
is approaching, help prevent
rollovers, and employ amber
rear turn signal lights
that drivers are quicker to
identify as indicating a turn
rather than braking.
In addition, the ratings
will include a new type
crash test designed to
simulate cars that collide
at an angle. Crash tests will
also use improved crashtest dummies that better
represent how accidents
impact the human body.
And the rating system will
reward cars designed to
protect pedestrians who are
struck by them.
Were going to raise
the bar when it comes
to protecting vehicle
occupants, said
Transportation Secretary
Anthony Foxx.
The departments goal,
Foxx said, is to ultimately
prevent crashes altogether.
He said hes hopeful that will

happen in his lifetime.

The rating system posts
a rating of one to five stars
on the window stickers of
new cars to help shoppers
identify the safest vehicles.
The new system will also
include half stars as well as
full stars to get at nuances
in safety features, said
Mark Rosekind, head of the
National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration,
which administers the
ratings system. For example,
a vehicle might get a half
star for technology that
automatically warns drivers
of an impending frontal
collision, but a whole star
if the system automatically
applies the brakes, he said.
The changes proposed
for the system are subject
to a 60-day public comment

period, and final rules

are to be issued next year.
Consumers would begin
seeing the new ratings on
cars in model year 2019.
The new crash dummies
will have over 100 sensors,
including four in the rib
cage, while current dummies
have only 50 or 60 sensors
and just one in the rib cage,
NHTSA officials said. The
dummies also reflect more
recent knowledge of how
injuries occur, they said.
An estimated 17 million
new cars and trucks are
expected to be sold this year.
Traffic fatalities dropped
in 2014 to less than 33,000,
but data from the first half
of this year indicates they
are increasing steeply again
as the economy continues
to improve and the price of

FUN AMENITIES
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gasoline drops.
Both automakers and
safety advocates applauded
the proposed changes.
Crash-avoidance
technologies can be lifesaving innovations that
were eager to see consumers
embrace, the Alliance of
Automobile Manufacturers
said in a statement. Looking
ahead, a significant portion
of future highway safety
gains will likely come
from these advanced
technologies.
William Wallace, a policy
analyst for Consumers
Union, the advocacy arm
of Consumer Reports
magazine, said the updates
will create a powerful
incentive for automakers to
make the latest life-saving
technologies available on

more vehicles more quickly,

and thats great news for
consumers.
One of the governments
aims in updating the rating
system is to put pressure on
automakers to include crash
prevention technologies
in all vehicles, not just
more expensive luxury
models, Foxx said. In the
past, automakers have
voluntarily included more
safety technology in vehicles
in an effort to earn more
stars, but many of the nine
technologies proposed for the
rating system are primarily
available in a limited number
of higher end vehicles.
Over 90 percent of new
vehicles today earn a four
or five star rating, but those
vehicles would likely earn
only about three and a half

stars under the updated

system, Rosekind said.
The National
Transportation Safety
Board, which investigates
accidents, has recommended
that NHTSA simply require
automatics to include more
advanced safety technologies
in new cars. Automakers
oppose requiring the new
technologies, saying it
should be up to consumers
whether they want to pay for
additional safety features or
not.
Whether these
technologies are mandated
in the future or not, we
think this is market
changing stuff that is
going to impact safety to
the good, Foxx said.

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