Divergent stands on safety

The battle between consumer advocacy groups and automakers over safety heats up as Congress contemplates mandates.

Speed to market is viewed as critical to automakers in terms of financial success, but some consumer groups say the automotive industry is going neither fast nor far enough in terms of making their vehicles safer.

“On critical auto safety matters, the government has delayed for years, and in some cases decades, allowing thousands to continue to be maimed and slaughtered on our roads,” Joan Claybrook, President of consumer-advocacy group Public Citizen, wrote in a statement March 23. “In 1971, the government announced plans to write a rollover prevention standard requiring vehicles to be stable. We still don't have a standard, because the government has been studying the issue for 30 years, thus automakers can churn out vehicles that are dangerously rollover-prone.”