The U.S. Department of Transportation has announced changes to its vehicle safety rating program for the first time in seven years.

An article in the Washington Post, explains that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) will measure frontal crash tests by including female dummies in passenger seats and taking injury data from new parts of the body, including the legs and neck.

The female dummies, making their debut in the safety rating program after years of being used in basic compliance testing, are 4 feet 8 inches tall and weigh 108 pounds, which also allows them to double as large children in crash tests.

The new testing protocol, which is scheduled to begin with the 2010 model year, will continue to assess vehicles on the existing five-star scale but will also add an overall safety rating that combines scores from several crash tests. According to the article, these changes are drawing mixed reactions from advocates who hoped the government would go further in revamping the way it tests automobiles, trucks, sport-utility vehicles, and vans.

"We can say that cars today are much safer than they were 30 years ago. And we have the government safety ratings system in part to thank for that," said Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, who unveiled the changes at a news conference in Washington this week. The original ratings program, which started in 1979, has certainly encouraged the adoption of safety technologies in cars and trucks. According to the NHTSA, 98 percent of 2007 models achieved four and five stars for driver-side frontal crashes while fewer than 30 percent of vehicles earned four or five stars when the program debuted. "We're trading in the old program for a newer, more advanced model," said Peters.

In an article from the Associated Press, Peters said the overall safety rating would combine results from front-end, side and rollover tests, taking out the guess work of comparing scores for different makes and models.

The new ratings will also account for a broad range of technologies to prevent crashes, as well as inform car shoppers whether electronic stability control, lane departure, and forward collision warning systems are optional or standard features on a vehicle.

Other additions in this rule also include a new side-pole test meant to mimic collisions in which a vehicle wraps around a tree. A new roof crush standard that was supposed to have gone into effect July 1 has been delayed until October.

Jody DeVere
President
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