Car Window Deaths Anger Safety Groups Advocates Say Technology Exists to Prevent Accidents
By Greg Schneider
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 24, 2004; Page A01
At least seven children have died nationwide in the past three months by getting strangled in automobile power windows, prompting safety advocates to charge the auto industry and the government with dragging their feet in making relatively simple changes to reduce the danger.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the federal agency responsible for monitoring auto safety, has no rules governing power window safety and no formal way of tracking such accidents despite examining the issue for several years. A spokesman said the agency plans to propose a rule requiring safer power windows in about a month, followed by a comment period and then a phase-in period for industry to comply.
Until the recent unexplained surge in deaths, power windows were thought to be responsible for only about two to four child deaths per year, a small fraction of the 43,220 people killed annually in U.S. traffic accidents.
But safety advocates say any such deaths are unnecessary because they are readily preventable. The problem is primarily with U.S.-made cars sold in the U.S. market, which traditionally have used "rocker" or toggle-style switches that can cause power windows to close inadvertently if someone leans on the switch.
Because some foreign governments have window safety requirements, most Asian- and European-brand vehicles use a type of switch that has to be pulled upward to raise the window, making it difficult for a child to trip it accidentally. Many foreign brands also offer bounce-back features that cause windows to lower automatically if they hit an obstacle, similar to the safety feature on garage-door openers. Such equipment is available on Volkswagens, for example, sold in the United States or abroad.
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