Johnson, James A. R., special assistant, National Governors' Conference, Office of Federal State Relations, Washington, D.C., letter dated May 19, 1969 Material relating to the construction of a compliance facility Hartke, Vance, U.S. Senator, letter to Dr. Robert Brenner dated May 9, 1969 Brenner, Robert, Acting Director, National Highway Safety Bureau, letter dated May 26, 1969__. Material relating to the desirability of increasing the NHSB authorization for fiscal 1972 Page 309 297 297 297 305 Hartke, Vance, U.S. Senator, letter to Dr. Robert Brenner dated 305 Baker, Charles D., Office of the Secretary of Transportation, letter dated July 31, 1969___. 305 Material relating to the importation of used Volkswagens which are sold as new 299 Nader, Ralph, attorney, letter dated February 7, 1969__ 299 Dixon, Paul Rand, Chairman, Federal Trade Commission, letter dated 301 Magnuson, Warren G., U.S. Senator, letter to Dr. Robert Brenner dated 303 Brenner, Robert, Acting Director, National Highway Safety Bureau, letter dated May 27, 1969__. 304 Material relating to quality control.. 295 Hartke, Vance, U.S. Senator, letter to Secretary John A. Volpe dated 295 Volpe. John A., Secretary of Transportation, Washington, D.C., letter dated July 11, 1969 296 Material on school bus safety. 264 Report of the Schoolbus Operation Safety Advisory Committee_ Huntsville and Decatur, Ala., schoolbus crashes-Specific findings of maintenance or design failure prepared by School of Civil Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Ga--- 264 267 Nader, Ralph, attorney, letter dated December 10, 1968. 283 274 107 "Safety-the Reluctant Dragon" from Consumer Reports, April 1969_-Special interim report analyzing automobile accidents by make, model, and year, prepared by the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles---Summary of a research program in crash injury reduction, prepared by the National Highway Safety Bureau, dated May 2, 1969__. 251 181 257 "Tire Test Results (Preliminary)", National Highway Safety Bureau, dated January 2, 1969_--- 289 "Toyota Corolla Station Wagon Judged Not Acceptable by CU," Press Release from Consumers Union, dated July 15, 1969__. 308 Vehicles 1 to 5 years old involved in fatal and injury accidents, report by the National Highway Safety Bureau_- Wolf, Robert A., head, Transportation Research Department, Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory, Inc., Buffalo, N.Y., letter dated January 10, 1969-- 263 285 THE NATIONAL TRAFFIC AND MOTOR VEHICLE SAFETY ACT OF 1969 MONDAY, APRIL 14, 1969 U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, Washington, D.C. The committee met at 10 a.m. in room 5110, New Senate Office Building, Hon. Vance Hartke presiding. Present: Senators Hartke, Moss, Pearson, Hansen, and Baker. Senator HARTKE. Good morning everyone. The committee will come to order. OPENING STATEMENT BY THE CHAIRMAN Today the Senate Commerce Committee opens 2 days of hearings to review the implementation of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1969 and to consider proposals to authorize funds for administering this act during fiscal 1970 and 1971. The committee presently has before it S. 1245, a bill sent to Congress by the Johnson administration, which would authorize the expenditure of $23 million in fiscal 1970 and $40 million in fiscal 1971 and which would authorize the appropriation of an additional $10 million for planning and design of a highway safety research and test facility. Last week the Nixon administration transmitted its funding proposal to the committee. Basically it is the same as S. 1245, except that the authorization for fiscal 1971 would be reduced to $35 million and the entire program would be financed from the general fund rather than the highway trust fund. No safety legislation enacted by Congress in recent years offers such enormous potential for saving lives as the present traffic safety program. For over 50,000 Americans are now being killed on the Nation's highways each year and many more are being seriously injured. Although safety improvements, such as impact-absorbing steering assemblies and laminated windshields, have reduced the annual number of fatalities in terms of both total miles driven and cars registered, there is still substantial agreement that this program has very much more to accomplish. The purpose of these hearings, therefore, is to determine whether the Bureau is presently being adequately funded and to ascertain if it can move more vigorously over the next several years to improve the safety of the motor vehicles presently being sold and operated in this country. Before calling our first witness, I would like to place in the record at this point a copy of S. 1245 as well as a copy of the draft funding proposal submitted by the Nixon administration and the accompanying Staff member assigned to this hearing: William G. Meserve. letter of transmittal. I shall also order Agency comments on these bills to be inserted following the bill. (The information referred to follows:) [S. 1245, 91st Cong., first sess.] A BILL To authorize appropriations for the fiscal years 1970 and 1971 for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966, and to amend the definition of "motor vehicle equipment" in the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SHORT TITLE SECTION 1. This Act may be cited as the "National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1969". AUTHORIZATIONS SEC. 2. There is hereby authorized to be appropriated for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of titles I, II, and IV of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966, as amended (80 Stat. 718; 15 U.S.C. 1381, et seq.), out of the highway trust fund, not to exceed $23,000,000 for fiscal year 1970 and $40,000,000 for fiscal year 1971. SEC. 3. For the purposes of carrying out the provisions of title III of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 (80 Stat. 729), there is hereby authorized to be appropriated, out of the highway trust fund, for fiscal year 1970, $10,000,000, to remain available until expended, for planning and design of highway safety research and test facilities, including engineering studies and site surveys. DEFINITION OF MOTOR VEHICLE EQUIPMENT SEC. 4. Section 102 (4) of title I of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 (80 Stat. 718; 15 U.S.C. 1391 (4)) is amended to read as follows: "(4) 'Motor vehicle equipment means any system, part, or component of a motor vehicle as originally manufactured or any similar part or component manufactured or sold for replacement or improvement of such system, part, or component or as any accessory, or addition to the motor vehicle, and any device, article, or apparel not a system, part, or component of a motor vehicle, which is manufactured, sold, delivered, offered, or intended for use wholly or in part to safeguard motor vehicles, drivers, passengers, and other highway users from risk of accident, injury, or death." Hon. SPIRO T. AGNEW, Washington, D.C. OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION, DEAR Mr. VICE PRESIDENT: The Department of Transportation submits herewith as a part of its legislative program for the 91st Congress, 1st Session, a draft of a proposed bill to authorize appropriations for the fiscal year 1970 and 1971 for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966, and to amend the definition of "motor vehicle equipment" in the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966. 1. The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 contained initial authorizations to implement the motor vhicle safety standard provisions in Title I of the Act as follows: $11.000,000 for fiscal year 1967, $17,000,000 for fiscal year 1968, and $23,000,000 for the fiscal year 1969. The Act also authorized funds to carry out the tire safety provisions of Title I and Title II in the amount of $2,900,000 for fiscal year 1967, $1,450,000 for fiscal year 1968, and $1,450,000 for fiscal year 1969. The proposed bill would authorize appropriations from the general funds in the Treasury to continue the implementation of the Act. Section 2 would authorize the appropriation of $23,000,000 and $35,000,000 for fiscal years 1970 and 1971, respectively, for this purpose. These authorizations will be used to seek appropriations for the operating expenses of the National Highway Safety Bureau of the Federal Highway Administration in carrying out the provisions of Titles I, II, and IV of the 1966 Act. Title I relates to motor vehicle safety standards, including necessary safety research and development; Title II relates to tire safety; and Title IV relates to the National Driver Register. The authorizations provided in the 1966 Act established a pattern of modest growth during the first three years as the operation of the traffic and motor vehicle safety program evolved. The authorizations requested for fiscal years 1970 and 1971 follow the same general pattern of modest increases. These sums are urgently needed to enable the National Highway Safety Bureau to continue its program under the Act. Existing authorizations for appropriations expire on June 30, 1969. Enactment of section 2 of this bill will, in our view, assure steady and continued improvement in traffic and motor vehicle safety. Failure to do so will mean the end of this effort as a function of the Department of Transportation after June 30, 1969. The traffic and motor vehicle safety program, though still in the early stages of development, offers encouragement that the toll of human life and injuries resulting from traffic accidents can be reduced. The new energy absorbing steering assemblies now required by Federal standards on all new cars, for example, appear to have reduced fatalities in certain crashes by as much as 70 percent. It has been established that if all cars had such devices, as many as 12,000 lives per year might be saved. Other safety standards under consideration relating to crash prevention properties (braking and steering are examples), crash survivability properties (relative ease of entry into wrecks to remove occupants, for example) offer promise of substantially reducing the carnage and maiming caused by traffic accidents. The authorization in section 2 of the bill also includes funds for the tire safety program (Title II). The major effort in this program is devoted to the development of a uniform quality grading system for motor vehicle tires. Under this system, tires will be graded based on performance with respect to high speed capability, endurance, strength, traction, and tread wear. The initial standard to be issued in fiscal year 1969 will cover passenger vehicles only. During fiscal years 1969 and 1970, it is planned to move our efforts to truck and bus tires and to regrooved and retreaded tires. The National Driver Register (Title IV) is now being converted to a disc file operation which will enable optional use of the current processing system. State contributions of records to the Register's master file are increasing in volume, and the States are sending an increasing volume of inquiries to the Register. Continued funding is required to convert information submitted by certain States into a form suitable for automatic data processing. 2. Section 3 of the bill authorizes the appropriation of $10,000,000 out of the general funds of the Treasury to remain available until expended to be used for planning and design of contemplated highway safety research and test facilities, including engineering studies and site surveys. The sum requested is in accordance with the recommendations in the report submitted to Congress pursuant to Title III of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966, section 302 ((80 Stat. 729). The two volume report, entitled "Requirements for Motor Vehicles and Highway Research Test Facilities," submitted on October 7, 1968, outlines a master plan for providing the facilities needed to bring to bear the full potential of modern science and technology on the national goal of reducing deaths and injuries on the Nation's highways. The primary objective of the master plan is to provide highway safety research and testing facilities by complementing existing facilities, either by expanding installations at their present sites or, when no alternative is available by construction at new locations. The planning will consider the needs of the other agencies within the Department and, through cooperative arrangements with them, will provide for such needs where those needs can be accommodated consistently with the primary purposes of the highway safety research and testing facilities. The plan depicted in the report to Congress was based on engineering studies and a survey of existing facilities to determine the minimum requirements to carry out the provisions of the highway safety legislation. Two major new safety facilities, a vehicle and highway safety proving ground with certain supporting laboratories and a driving simulation laboratory, will be required in addition to modifications of existing facilities where it is economically feasible to do so and where the facility once modified can become an effective element of the overall required complement of safety research and test facility. The proving ground will be the foundation for the entire facilities program. It will consist of test tracks and supporting laboratories in which a wide variety of test and measurements can be conducted on interrelated problems of vehicle performance characteristics, driver skills, highway design, and other environmental features. The driving simulation laboratory will be used to investigate a variety of driver judgments and risk taking behaviors in a number of realistic and safe simulations of high hazard conditions of actual driving. The estimate of $10 million for planning these facilities is broken down as follows: Modification of existing facilities: To develop plans and cost estimates for permanent modifications of existing Federal facilities where it is economically feasible and where the facility, once modified, can become and effective element of the overall complement of research and test facilities Vehicle and highway safety proving ground: To develop detailed engineering plans and cost estimates for the proving ground, the requirements for which cannot be provided with any existing Federal facility-Driving simulation laboratory: To develop detailed engineering plans for the laboratory which is a basic requirement that is not available anywhere today---. Total Millions $2.0 6.2 1.8 10.0 Because the initial motor vehicle safety standards were based, as the Act contemplated, on preexisting standards from design performance criteria, the absence of appropriate laboratories and field testing capabilities did not present a serious handicap at that time. As work proceeds into more complex areas of standards-setting, however, sophisticated facilities are essential. The facilities are needed to support the development of standards relating to present types of motor vehicles. In addition, trends in motor vehicle transportation indicate that, in the course of the next decade or two, substantial changes will occur in motor vehicle design. These changes can result in safer vehicles. To insure this result, however, their introduction will have to be anticipated by performance standards and prerequisite laboratory and field tests. The enactment of section 3 of this bill will provide the authorization necessary to begin planning the modern research and test facilities which are needed if we are to be in a position to insure that the automobiles of the future will be safe ones. No proposed authorization to construct the planned facilities has been included in this proposal. When the planning and design effort which would be authorized by our propoal has matured to the point that more precise further estimates can be made, the necessary additional authorization will be requested for site acquisition and construction including any modifications of existing facilities. DEFINITION OF MOTOR VEHICLE EQUIPMENT 3. Section 4 of the proposed bill concerns motorcyclist headgear. The laws of 39 States now require these protective helmets to be worn by motorcycle drivers and riders. This requirement has been included among the Highway Safety Program Standards issued by the Department under the Highway Safety Act of 1966 in order to upgrade highway safety in all the States. The initial evidence of this standard's effectiveness makes it likely that additional States will put motorcycle helmet requirements into effect in the foreseeable future. States implementing the headgear requirement show an overall decrease of 30 percent in motorcycle death rates. Unless a helmet is properly designed and manufactured it will not afford much protection to one who wears it. At present there is no uniform standard governing these protective devices so that the motorcycling public can be certain it is getting the protection it is paying for. Most States do not have research and testing facilities designed or equipped to evaluate the effectiveness of the "crash" helmets presently being marketed. Understandable confusion, therefore, exists among the public, the States and the industry over what constitutes an "approved" helmet. This is an obvious safety problem which could be eliminated by issuance of a uniform Federal motor vehicle safety performance standard. Unfortunately, the Secretary apparently lacks authority to do so because the language of the Traffic |