U.S. weighs new testing for vehicle roof strength

By John Crawley

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. auto safety regulators, under pressure to upgrade an earlier proposal and reduce highway deaths, said on Thursday they may require a tougher test for determining roof strength of cars and other passenger vehicles.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration sought public comment about whether to boost testing requirements for a regulation it proposed in 2005 but has not yet finalized.

Some regulators, members of Congress, and safety and consumer groups have aggressively pushed for stronger roof tests as a way to reduce deaths and injuries in rollover crashes.

Rollver-related deaths account for about a quarter of all U.S. traffic fatalities, which have topped 40,000 annually in recent years.

"Rollover crashes are among the most violent events on America's highways, and although they constitute a relatively small number of overall crashes, they account for a disproportionate number of deaths," Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said in a statement.

Classic sport utility vehicles and pickups -- long the best-selling products offered by U.S. auto companies -- have historically been more prone to roll than cars, largely because of a higher center of gravity.

NHTSA proposed in 2005 that automakers build passenger vehicles up to 10,000 pounds (4.5 tons) that could withstand a force equal to 2.5 times their own weight in a rollover crash. The current standard that has been in place for 30 years has a threshold of 1.5 times for vehicle weight up to 6,000 pounds (2.7 tons).

The proposed requirement was limited to only one side of the car, SUV or pickup, and critics called it wholly inadequate to protect motorists. Many cars and trucks on the road, they said, already met the planned standard.

Nicole Nason, the NHTSA administrator, said in a statement on Thursday that rollover tests developed over the past few years make a more stringent requirement viable.

Her agency is now considering a plan to extend the test to both sides of the vehicle. The weight requirement would not change but costs to automakers -- and consumers -- would go up. NHTSA did not include an aggregate cost to automakers in its updated proposal but the original estimate in 2005 was about $90 million per year.

Car companies, being pushed by Washington and under pressure from lawsuits, have moved on their own in recent years to improve vehicle stability.

Advanced air bags that protect the head and systems that correct steering and speed during skids or other conditions that might trigger rollover are being offered on more vehicles. SUVs in many cases have wider frames and a lower center of gravity than they once did as a way to reduce rollover risk.

NHTSA will seek comments on its updated proposal over the next 45 days and then decide how to proceed. The agency hopes to issue a final rule by the summer.

Major automakers said through their trade group that they would review the proposal, and touted voluntary safety advances to reduce rollover risk.

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)