Cars and light trucks come with dozens of standard safety features that add hundreds of dollars to the vehicle’s price. But are they worth the cost?
Traffic statistics are convincing.
In 1966, before a federal traffic safety agency was created to develop regulations for new vehicles, 50,894 Americans died in highway accidents. That includes people on motorcycles and bicycles and pedestrians, as well as occupants of all types of vehicles.
By 2000, the latest year for which statistics are available, the number of deaths had fallen to 41,821.
Traffic fatalities declined 18 percent in that period though the number of vehicles on the road more than doubled to 217 million from 95.7 million and the number of licensed drivers nearly doubled to 190.6 million.
The death rate dropped to 1.5 per 100 million miles driven in 2000, the lowest ever, from 5.5 in 1966.
Seat belts, one of the few safety features required in 1966, receive most of the credit.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the agency established to oversee these regulations, estimates that front seat belts saved 11,899 lives in 2000. NHTSA puts an asterisk on this statistic by saying it counts lives saved by seat belts first and air bags second. If someone is belted when an air bag deploys, the belt gets the credit, even if the air bag helped.
There is no comparable statistic for 1966, but one obvious difference between then and now is that only a handful of people used seat belts in 1966, and 73 percent of front-seat occupants buckle up today. Another is that in 1966, seat belts consisted of a lap belt only, with lap/shoulder belts, which offer greater protection, not required until the 1968 model year.
Jim Simons, NHTSA’s director of regulatory analysis and evaluations, said front seat belts cost $61 to $86 per vehicle.
NHTSA estimates that belts have saved 135,000 lives since 1975, the first year it began keeping such statistics.
Air bags are the most expensive safety feature required on new vehicles and the most publicized in recent years. A recent NHTSA study concluded that air bags cost $328 to $477 per vehicle, depending on manufacturer, and that they saved 1,585 lives in 2000 and 8,852 since 1984.
In 1984, before air bags became widely available, NHTSA projected that dual front air bags on cars and light trucks would save 4,500 lives per year based on 46 percent seat-belt use.
Simons says air bags have saved far fewer lives than expected because NHTSA’s projections were based on results of a government crash test. Vehicles are run head-on into a flat, fixed barrier, what Simons calls the “12 o’clock position,” and most real-world crashes are at angles.
“More real-world crashes are at 1 or 2 o’clock, or 10 and 11, and there are fewer head-on crashes,” he said. “As the angle got more away from directly head-on, the air bags would become less effective.”
Nevertheless, Simons adds, “anything that can save that many lives a year is huge.”
Air bags also have been cited in 208 deaths, primarily children and small women who in most cases weren’t belted.
Because of this, NHTSA changed its rules in 1998 to allow automakers to use air bags that deploy with less force and asked that children younger than 13 sit in rear seats.
Before 1998, federal regulations called for bags to deploy at a force sufficient to protect an unbelted, 175-pound adult male, a rule that automakers met with air bags that deployed at speeds of up to 200 m.p.h.
Since the rule was changed, air-bag-related deaths have dropped dramatically. On Oct. 1, 1999, 146 air-bag-related deaths were confirmed; there have been 62 since.
“I don’t think it’s possible to totally eliminate that as a problem, but we’ll get very close, I’m sure,” he said.
Simons says bags will become less risky as the industry phases in “smart” versions that deploy based on the size and weight of the seat occupant, impact speed and whether the occupant is belted.
The number of lives saved by air bags increases annually along with the percentage of vehicles equipped with them. “When we eventually have a full fleet of vehicles with both air bags and seat belts, if belt use increases, the number of lives saved by belts increases and the number of lives saved by air bags goes down,” Simons adds.
NHTSA estimates that 70 percent of vehicles have at least a driver-side air bag and 60 percent or more have dual front air bags.
But belts and bags aren’t the whole story. New vehicles come with dozens of other federally required safety features, including collapsible steering columns, padded dashboards and side marker lights and rules for seat and roof strength and braking capability.
NHTSA, for example, calculated in 1981 that energy-absorbing, collapsible steering columns added $19.30 (adjusted to 2000 dollars) to the cost of a passenger car and prevented 23,000 injuries and 1,300 fatalities per year. The study has not been updated, and Simons said the numbers would be lower today because belt use was around 11 percent in 1981 and air bags had been installed in only about 10,000 cars.
NHTSA does not calculate the total cost of safety regulations, which would be difficult given that automakers have leeway to devise their own compliance method for several regulations. Automakers, who know how much they cost, won’t say for competitive reasons and because of anti-trust restrictions.
The total adds up to several hundred dollars and may run into the thousands.
How effective the regulations are is hard to measure, but NHTSA estimated in 1991 that the government’s safety rules saved 243,400 lives between 1966 and 1990.
“And that was before seat-belt use really started increasing,” Simons adds.
“It’s difficult to put a dollar figure on it, but there’s no question that if you look at the investment made to improve vehicles, safety systems have proven to be cost effective,” said Brian O’Neill, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a research and lobbying organization funded by the insurance industry.
O’Neill said he is pleased that automakers now offer safety devices on their own, such as side air bags and side curtains, for which there is no requirement. But he wants more features, including ones that can prevent accidents.
“What interests me most are electronics that could be added to detect what is going to happen before it happens and automatically react to it,” he said, such as a sophisticated stability control system that detects a slide before it happens and applies the brakes or reduces engine power to prevent it.
“I’m very interested in pre-crash electronics that have the potential to improve the restraints we already have in vehicles,” O’Neill said, citing technology such as side curtain systems offered in the Ford Explorer and the 2003 Ford Expedition and coming this fall in the Volvo XC90 sport-utility vehicle. They detect an impending rollover and deploy side curtain air bags before the vehicle rolls and keep them deployed during the rollover.
Clarence Ditlow, director of the Center for Auto Safety, a consumer lobbying organization founded by Ralph Nader that has frequently criticized NHTSA and the auto industry, says government regulations have spurred the industry to build safer vehicles and raised consumer awareness of safety.
“If we didn’t have government regulations, the marketplace alone wouldn’t deliver safety,” Ditlow said, adding that the battle is far from over.
“We’re getting enough of an increase in safety features in vehicles and seat-belt use to just keep up with the vehicles on the road. If we don’t get more seat-belt use and more safety features, the death rate will stay the same, and the death toll will go up.”
A crash course
Prompted by a growing number of traffic fatalities, the National Traffic and Motor Safety Act in 1966 created the National Highway Safety Bureau. This agency, which has become the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, introduced Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards to better protect passenger vehicle occupants in a crash. NHTSA sets the standards and allows the automakers to determine how to best meet them. Here are selected requirements and the years they were enacted:
1. ROOF
Jan. 1, 1973: Strength requirements to keep a crushed roof from intruding more than 5 inches into a passenger compartment in a rollover.
2. WINDSHIELD
Jan. 1, 1968: Windshield defrosting and defogging systems, power windshield wiper and washer system with a standard wiping area and frequency required.
Jan. 1, 1968: Standards set for glazing materials used on windows, windshields and interior partitions.
Sept. 1, 1978: Mountings must be anchored and retain their shape in a crash to keep occupants in the vehicle.
Sept. 1, 1976: To reduce the likelihood of contact with a passenger, windshields must not intrude too far into the passenger cabin.
3. POWER WINDOWS
Feb. 1, 1971: Standards set to prevent injury from the operation of power windows and roof panels.
4. MIRRORS
Jan. 1, 1968: Sideview mirror on driver’s side must provide a clear and reasonably unobstructed view. Passenger-side mirror required when rearview mirror cannot provide good enough views because of the size and placement of the rear window.
5. SURFACES
Jan. 1, 1968: Standards are set to reduce hazardous reflection off the windshield wipers, interior windshield moldings, horn rings, steering-wheel hub assemblies and frames and rearview mirror brackets.
6. INTERIOR PROTECTION
Jan. 1, 1968: Instrument panels, seat backs, sun visors, doors and armrests must be designed to protect occupants in a crash up to 15 m.p.h.
Sept. 18, 1995: Pillars, side rails, roof headers and the roof must be designed to protect occupants in a crash.
Jan. 1, 1968: Head restraints must protect against severe head and neck injuries.
Sept. 1, 1972: Interior materials must meet flammability standards, especially for fires origintaing inside the vehicle.
7. CONTROLS AND DISPLAYS
Jan. 1, 1968: All essential controls must be placed within the reach of a belted driver and certain ones on the instrument panel must be identified.
Jan. 1, 1972: All manually operated controls must be labeled with words.
Sept. 1, 1972: Identification of essential controls and displays in the dash must be lit when the headlights are.
Sept. 1, 1980: Certain essential hand controls and displays must be identified with a symbol that can be illuminated.
8. HOOD
Jan. 1, 1969: Hood must have two latches to reduce the likelihood that it will open unintentionally and obstruct a driver’s vision.
9. LIGHTS
Jan. 1, 1968: Side marker lights and reflectors, hazard and back-up lights and replacement equipment are required.
10. STEERING COLUMN
Jan. 1, 1968: Limits rearward displacement of steering column and sets chest cushioning standards in a crash.
11. BUMPERS
July 1982: Front and rear bumpers must withstand a 2.5-m.p.h. impact without damage.
12. SEATS
Jan. 1, 1968: Seats must be able to withstand an impact without collapsing or detaching.
13. RESTRAINT SYSTEMS
Jan. 1, 1968: Lap or lap and shoulder belts are required for each seating position. Lap and shoulder belts are required for each outboard seating position except in convertibles.
Jan. 1, 1968: Lap and shoulder belts must hold in an accident up to 30 m.p.h.
Jan. 1, 1972: Passive restraints (air bags and lap and shoulder belts) must meet a 30-m.p.h. front-barrier crash.
Jan. 1, 1971: Tests and information regarding proper use of child seats are required.
14. AIR BAGS
Sept. 1, 1998: All vehicles shall be equipped with air bags to cover all front seating positions.
15. SIDE-IMPACT PROTECTION
Sept. 1, 1993: Vehicles must be designed to reduce deaths or serious chest or pelvic injuries in a side impact up to 33.5 m.p.h.
Door crush resistance levels are phased in through September 1996.
16. DOORS, LATCHES AND HINGES
Jan. 1, 1970: Latches, locks and hinges must meet crashworthiness standards to keep occupants in the vehicle.
17. TRANSMISSION
Jan. 1, 1968: Starter interlock, preventing a vehicle with an automatic transmission from being started in gear, is required. Standard manual transmission shift patterns are set.
18. BRAKES
Jan. 1 1968: Parking brake system must remain engaged solely through mechanical means.
Jan. 1, 1968: Brake indicator lamps, and audible warnings in some cases, are required.
Sept. 1, 1985: Rear high mounted stop lamp on the vertical center line is required.
19. FUEL SYSTEM
Jan. 1, 1968: The fuel system must be able to withstand an impact to prevent spillage and fires.
20. TIRES
Jan. 1, 1968: Standards are defined for pneumatic tire load rating, performance, endurance and labeling.
Source: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
