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Roof Strength Standard~Statement from U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters
“As stewards of the nation’s transportation system, we take our safety responsibilities seriously, and it is incumbent on us to develop new regulations that optimize safety. We must ensure that any final rules we issue are as successful as possible. Accordingly, we have informed Congress today that we need more time to complete a new roof strength standard that effectively protects motorists.”
18 Comments on “If Only the U.S. Congress Was So Circumspect…...”
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Or not.
How about having a Roof Strength measurement system and printing the results on the car’s spec sheet. That way consumers can decide for themselves if increased strength is worth the price, weight, and increased rollover possibility (of the extra roof weight). Let the manufacturers produce what they would like–perhaps even just bring in perfectly fine European models that don’t happen to benchmark well enough on the USA-only requirement.
This is not prudence. This is Bush Administration-speak for “f**k off, consumers.” I don’t see why this attitude should be celebrated. It’s the same reason our food supply isn’t safe, why our drinking water is allowed to contain chemical components of rocket fuel, and why our kids have a greater chance of chewing on lead-laced toys than they did eight years ago.
Conservative, market-driven gun-addled libertarian fantasies are going to fix any of the above how, exactly? You can buy bottled water, though you can’t reasonably bathe in it, but you’re going to inspect every toy coming into your household with a lead testing kit? You’re going to have your meat at every meal analyzed for mad cow disease, and your lettuce for salmonella?
The Bush administration should try a full out, tongue-in-cheek hater-mode policy. Mandate an exotic carbon-fiber titanium alloy roof for all cars and trucks. Ensure that it costs $10K+ more than a high strength steel roof.
So what if a Yaris goes from $13K to $23K? Do we really want those types of people driving?
ihatetrees: “Mandate an exotic carbon-fiber titanium alloy roof for all cars and trucks. Ensure that it costs $10K+ more than a high strength steel roof.”
Great idea! But there also should be a requirement that wheelbase must be at least 25 feet, and on both sides there must be outriggers extending 20 feet. There can be no compromise with safety! Anyone who doubts that is just a cheap whore for evil, greedy industrialists.
Faster than rabbit –you sure lead a dangerous life.
With their regulation of the banking mortgage and securities industries leading us into poverty. One of the rules they thought was absolutely necessary before passage was $250,000 saving account insurance. Who has $250,000 laying around in a savings account. They were so proud of that.
I am sure the roof standards will not have any result other than to measure the weight of the car.
Oddly enough, the increased roof strength is needed most by the heaviest vehicles that are the most likely to roll over – the big SUV’s.
Ironically, (at least in the “old” economy) those platforms were the most likely to be able to absorb (hide) the added cost of these safety improvements; but now, not so sure.
I think the auto manufacturers can argue that these regulations will be the death of the SUV, at least in its present incarnation.
I actually agree with this legislation purely on a safety standpoint; in our area recently, one teenage girl of four driving in an SUV rolled it on Interstate 70 while swerving to avoid something in their lane; all were wearing seatbelts and were slightly injured — except the girl in the passenger seat who was killed by the collapsing roof. Otherwise, the SUV (large Chevy or GM, as it appeared on the news report) was not damaged in any way that would threaten the life of the other passengers.
Needless to say, the survivors are devastated that one of their friends was “chosen” to die…
@blindfaith
Anyone with $250k in a savings account who is too dumb to split it into three separate accounts needs to be protected from the consequences of their own folly … just like Wall Street.
hasta luego cabrios? They don’t even have a roof.
There has to be some compromise along the way.
The safety folks are telling car makers that cars need all these safety mandates, which inevitably adds to the weight of the car.
Then the global warming folks come along and say that the car needs to get 35 mpg.
We can’t have it both ways.
faster-than-rabbit-
Believe it or not, meat suppliers and lettuce producers don’t want their products to be tainted. If you bought meat from Perdue or lettuce from Dole which ended up making you sick, would you ever buy those products again? They wouldn’t stay in business very long, even in a “laissez-faire” environment.
The fact that a relative few of the millions of people in this country get sick from food is actually quite astonishing. There’s no such thing as a perfect world, and you’ll drive yourself crazy trying to make it so.
to: blind. Though I agree with your sentiment. $250K insurance will help to drive capital into the smaller, more conservative banks and credit unions that have maintained lending standards.
The proposed $250,000 FDIC limit is helpful more to businesses than the average person. Before the current business climate my business checking account would excede 100,000 dollars regularly without my immediate knowledge. And I only have three small stores. Some larger companys weekly payroll excedes even the 250k limit.
faster_than_rabbit :
This is not prudence. This is Bush Administration-speak for “f**k off, consumers.
Yes, capitalists hate consumers….we just want to screw them
” I don’t see why this attitude should be celebrated. It’s the same reason our food supply isn’t safe
Yes, I am ill everyday and many, many family members have died from the dangerous food supply…I am suprised you are still alive
why our drinking water is allowed to contain chemical components of rocket fuel
Rocket fuel is essentially hydrogen burned in oxygen….what does that make? If it’s in my water, sure makes it tasty…I have some of the best well water ever…
and why our kids have a greater chance of chewing on lead-laced toys than they did eight years ago.
I guess I didn’t have lead painted toys to chew on…mine were usually the deadly molded plastic. But I was fortunate enough to peel and eat lead paint off the window sills as a kid. I believe the Chinese socialist/communist utopia sold us the lead paint toys.
Conservative, market-driven gun-addled libertarian fantasies are going to fix any of the above how, exactly?
Markets correct themselves….we use the guns to protect the speech of the idiots that spout emotional, subjective, non-fact based rants like this one.
You can buy bottled water, though you can’t reasonably bathe in it
I take showers….very hard to do with bottled water. Read your labels….a lot of bottled water is tap water.
but you’re going to inspect every toy coming into your household with a lead testing kit?
Create and build toys for your kids….use your imagination. Don’t buy made in China. I played with metal erector sets, marbles, and never wore a bike helmet or knee/elbow pads. Got skinned up a lot, but boy those 8 ft plywood bike ramps were fun.
You’re going to have your meat at every meal analyzed for mad cow disease
Yes, again…mad cow disease is an epidemic!!! I think the USDA does swell job….cook your meat!
and your lettuce for salmonella?
If you wash your lettuce, the rocket fuel in the water will kill the bacteria….problem solved!
Spouting mindless drivel without facts is not a way to argue a point….it is the last reserve of frustration.
I have to call bullshit on this “too expensive / too rollover prone” line of thinking. We’re not talking about a freaking roll cage here.
To put it in perspective:
The Scion tC is one of a half-dozen cars that already meets ALL of the available proposed standards, including the 4X-weight “A plane landed on my car” doomsday scenario. Yes, you read that currectly: currently meets them.
Call me crazy if I don’t think “expensive” OR “top-heavy” when I think of the tC. Like all reasonable adults, I think “exhaust opening large enough to insert my foot.” Mileage isn’t bad either, now that you mention it. Oh, those wacky Scions – everything you need in a car, provided you don’t mind being seen in it!
As a correction to those who say it can be done: it IS being done.
faster_than_rabbit is correct. We all have PCBs in our bodies as well as loads of other chemicals. Despite billions spent on cancer research, we’re losing ground. What’s touted as progress in cancer survival, after detection, is mostly bullshit. Unless ‘rare’ diseases like thyroid disorders, ALS, etc. hit somebody we know, and we are thus educated, most of us are ignorant of trends. Some of these things can be traced to certain genes, but genes can be altered by environmental factors. Genetic research is a gold mine for researchers versus calling the problem to be environmental which ends the project. So chasing the genetic ’cause’ pays the mortgage and avoids the opposition from polluters that identifying the true cause would bring.
@1996MEditio:
Yes, capitalists hate consumers….we just want to screw them
Some corporations, and individuals, continually demonstrate a willingness to sacrifice the safety of their customers in the interest of greater profits.
Rocket fuel is essentially hydrogen burned in oxygen….what does that make? If it’s in my water, sure makes it tasty…I have some of the best well water ever…
Perchlorate is very harmful even in minute amounts in water.
Yes, again…mad cow disease is an epidemic!!! I think the USDA does swell job….cook your meat!
Cooking does not destroy the prions involved in mad cow disease.
I could go on.
Gosh, we libertarians sure have taken a bad rap lately. Somehow we’ve destroyed the economy, poisoned the water and given children mad cow disease infested lead toys to chew on, all without being in power in any way, shape or form. Sure, you can claim the republicans are libertarians, but, speaking as a lib, I really don’t think they are, as the bailout BS proves, not to mention the war on (some) drug users and any other giant waste of taxpayer money you want to point at, including the entirety of US foreign policy.
Personally, I think the problem is the other way around. I think people assume “the government” will protect them, that because there is an FDA/USDA that the food will be safe – which for the most part it is, I must admit, although there is the one meat producer that wanted to test 100% of their cattle for mad cow but were told to knock it off because it would make other meat producers look bad. A truly libertarian govt would let people test their meat as they wished. Water, too. I’m sure the fact that some companies get away with polluting water has nothing to do with the tax revenues (or political contributions they provide). As for the toys, instead of assuming the CPSC will test everything, maybe toy retailers and consumers should encourage independent testing of toys, both imported and domestically produced, not just because it’s the right thing to do but because it will help retailers avoid being sued for negligently selling dangerous toys – although I will grant that the retailers were defrauded by the manufacturers, but good luck suing someone in China because of it.
As a libertarian, I agree with George Washington’s dictum: “Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.” Nonetheless, it is not just because of this that I believe in as free a market as possible – it is because time and again we see that the freer a market the more wealthy that society as a whole becomes. The more constrained by regulation and interference (like the bailout), the less the market produces wealth for all. This does not mean that companies should get away with murder. It does mean that companies should be held accountable by consumers/citizens, who should sue companies that sell unsafe products, who pollute the environment: capitalism, not corporatism.