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Ford Recalling SUVs Over Head Protection Testing
NHTSA says the Mercury Mariner's head injury score is marginally above the maximum allowed.
4/13/06 - WASHINGTON — Ford Motor Co. said Thursday it would recall nearly 150,000 Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner sport utility vehicles after the government and the automaker reached different conclusions in safety tests measuring the driver's head protection in a crash.
The recall affects some SUVs from the 2005 model year without side curtain-type airbags or moonroofs. Ford told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that it did not know of any reported injuries linked to the recalled vehicles.
In government testing, NHTSA found that the SUVs had a head injury score along the driver's side roofline near the front pillar that was marginally above the maximum allowed under federal regulations.
Ford conducted its own testing and found "a significant compliance margin," but decided to conduct the recall "to avoid a protracted dispute with the agency," according to an April 3 letter to NHTSA.
Ford said in a statement Thursday that the recall will make adjustments to reduce the stiffness of the energy-absorbing foam in the affected area.
Ford spokeswoman Kristen Kinley noted that the regulation allows many different test setups, and the one chosen by NHTSA was different than the setup selected by Ford. Kinley said the automaker chose the test setup that it felt was the "worst-case scenario."
Ford said it encourages all drivers and passengers to wear seat belts and "a belted occupant is not likely to contact the area of the vehicle that is in question."
The Escape and Mariner are built on the same platforms and considered corporate twins. Nearly 132,000 of the vehicles are in the United States and more than 15,000 are located in Canada.
Owners will be notified of the recall by mail by late May. They can also call Ford at 800-392-3673 or their local dealership to learn whether their vehicles are subject to the recall.
Ford Recalling Escape and Mariner on Safety Issue
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's own crash tests on the Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner found that a head injury score along the driver's side roofline near the front pillar was marginally above the maximum allowed.
Ford's tests differed and found the injury score contained "a significant compliance margin," but the company decided to recall the vehicles anyway and improve the head impact area. The stiffness of the energy-absorbing foam will be reduced.
Ford went on to say that "a belted occupant is not likely to contact the area of the vehicle that is in question." Some 150,000 Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner sport utility vehicles are being recalled from the 2005 model year.
New Car-Safety Focus: Crash Prevention
Regulators to Propose That All Vehicles Include Stability Control; Weighing Warning Systems
By LAURA MECKLER
September 14, 2006 - Car-safety rules have long focused on features that protect you in a crash, such as seat belts and air bags. Now, the government's auto-safety regulators are starting to focus on measures designed to prevent accidents in the first place.
The first major step in the effort comes today when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposes regulations to require auto makers to install electronic stability control in cars, sport-utility vehicles, minivans and pickups. The systems use brakes and engine power to automatically keep a car from veering out of control -- and are especially useful in preventing vehicles traveling at high speeds or on slippery roads from flipping over.
Laura Meckler discusses the expected proposal of new regulations requiring auto makers to install electronic stability-control systems in cars.
The rules are expected to take effect with the 2009 model year and to be phased in over three years. Currently, stability control comes as standard equipment on many high-end cars but is either optional -- at a cost of $300 to $800, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety -- or not available at all in others.
Electronic stability control "could be the greatest safety innovation since the safety belt," NHTSA Administrator Nicole Nason told a congressional committee this summer. Data show the equipment is highly effective at reducing deaths from rollovers, which account for a third of all passenger deaths, and from other single-vehicle crashes. Officials estimate that the stability controls could save 10,000 lives a year once installed in all vehicles. In 2005 more than 43,000 people in the U.S. died in car crashes.
The agency is also looking at variety of other preventive innovations. Some are warning systems that alert a driver to a coming accident, using radar and cameras to detect the possibility of colliding with toward another car or drifting into another lane. Other systems take action independently to prevent or slow down a coming crash.
STEADY NOW
[Steady Now]
Some car makers already are implementing electronic stability control:
• Ford: standard on all new vehicles by the end of 2009.
• GM: standard on vans and SUVs by end of 2007 and on all vehicles by end of 2010.
• DaimlerChrysler: standard on all 2007 SUVs and optional on other vehicles.
• Toyota: standard on 2007 Toyota and Lexus SUVs, pickup trucks and minivans, and all Lexus models.
• Honda: standard for 2007 Honda and Acura SUVs, pickups and minivans.
The agency could mandate any of these through regulation, but it could also encourage their adoption by including them in the government consumer-safety ratings program, which is due for an overhaul soon, or by funding research, which it has already begun to do. Any of these actions could encourage auto makers to offer these technologies more broadly, and not just on luxury brands, and perhaps as standard equipment.
Congress required the safety administration to issue regulations mandating stability-control systems, directing that a final rule be in place by Oct. 1, 2009. Stability control, which works with antilock-brake technology, is now standard on 40% of passenger-vehicle models, mostly from high-end car brands including Audi, BMW, Mercedes and Porsche.
Other vehicles offer it as an option, and in recent years, several car makers announced they would put the systems on all sport-utility vehicles. In advance of today's announcement, Ford Motor Co. said it would put the systems on all its passenger vehicles by the end of 2009.
Some of the advanced new technologies are starting to be introduced in luxury models such as those from Mercedes-Benz; others are still on the drawing board. Among the coming innovations:
Lane-departure warning systems: A beep sounds inside the car or the driver's seat vibrates when the vehicle drifts into another lane if the driver hasn't engaged the turn signal. One problem with these systems is that drivers can get annoyed by constant beeping or vibrating and may become immune to the warning. One side benefit: a study by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute found that people with this system were more likely to use their turn signals in the first place.
Adaptive cruise control: Radar or lasers are used to detect distance to the vehicle ahead and automatically adjust the speed of your car to maintain a safe distance. If the car ahead slows down, the system will apply the brakes to slow your car down, too.
Automatic steering: When the car veers near the edge of the lane, the system guides you back toward the center. This works by using cameras that track the painted lane markers.
Vehicle-to-vehicle communication: A transponder communicates with other vehicles on the road and warns of pending collisions. This could be effective at an intersection, for instance, when drivers don't notice other cars approaching. But it only works when both vehicles have the technology.
[A More Stable Ride]
Safety advocates applaud the new emphasis on crash-avoidance technologies. "This is a new future," says Susan Ferguson, senior vice president for research at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
A slew of research was done on stability-control technology to support the coming regulations, and similar work is needed on other technology, Ms. Ferguson says. "We need to understand the human factors that underlie these technologies before we move forward to say this is something that might be beneficial."
Safety advocates add that there is still much work to do on mitigating death and injury when crashes do occur. For starters, regulations requiring stronger roofs and better protecting occupants in side-impact crashes have been proposed but not yet finalized.
The new technology has been pushed largely by the suppliers that make it, as well as by safety advocates. But auto makers are starting to embrace it as well. General Motors Corp. is now working on technology that can alert drivers to impending collisions, says Lawrence Burns, GM's vice president for research and development and strategic planning. As more GM vehicles come equipped with computer technology, "add another chip and now cars can communicate every 20 milliseconds," and send collision warnings based on speed, location and direction of travel, he says.
For these systems to be successful, they will have to be embraced by drivers, particularly if they are optional and cost extra, says David LeBlanc, a researcher at the University of Michigan institute. "There's got to be a perception of real safety benefits for customers to be willing to buy them." In addition, he says, the government is unlikely to mandate an unpopular feature. In the 1970s, NHTSA mandated a system in which the ignition wouldn't start if a driver's seat belt wasn't fastened. "They got slapped hard by Congress," says Mr. LeBlanc, and the agency had to rescind the rule.
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