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Page 96
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: A Congressional Request for Study." Transportation Research Board. 2002. An Assessment of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Rating System for Rollover Resistance: Special Report 265. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10308.
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APPENDIX A
Congressional Request for Study

NATIONAL HIGHWAY TRAFFIC SAFETY ADMINISTRATION1

Operations and Research

…Provided further, That the Department of Transportation shall fund a study with the National Academy of Sciences on whether the static stability factor is a scientifically valid measurement that presents practical, useful information to the public including a comparison of the static stability factor test versus a test with rollover metrics based on dynamic driving conditions that may induce rollover events: Provided further, That nothing in this provision prohibits NHTSA from completing action on its proposal to provide rollover rating information to the public while the National Academy of Sciences conducts this study: Provided further, That to the extent NHTSA continues action on its rollover ratings proposal during the study, the agency shall consider any available preliminary deliberations or conclusions available from the National Academy of Sciences before completing action on its proposal, and shall consider coordinating any final action on its proposal with the completion of the National Academy of Sciences study: Provided further, That the National Academy of Sciences shall complete this study and issue a report to the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations not later than nine months after the date of enactment of this Act: Provided further, That after the National Academy of Sciences submits its findings to the Congress and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shall formally review and respond within 30 days to the study findings and propose any appropriate revisions to the consumer information program based on that review.

1

Text taken from conference report on H.R. 4475, Department of Transportation and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2001 (House Rept. 106–940).

Page 96
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: A Congressional Request for Study." Transportation Research Board. 2002. An Assessment of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Rating System for Rollover Resistance: Special Report 265. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10308.
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Page 96
Next: Appendix B: Committee Meetings and Other Activities »
An Assessment of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Rating System for Rollover Resistance: Special Report 265 Get This Book
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TRB Special Report 265 - An Assessment of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Rating System for Rollover Resistance finds that the static stability factor is a useful indicator of a vehicle's propensity to roll over, but that U.S. government ratings for new cars, light trucks, and sport utility vehicles do not adequately reflect differences in rollover resistance shown by available crash data. According to the report, the five-star system should be revised to allow better discrimination among vehicles and incorporate results from road tests that measure vehicle control and handling characteristics.

Following the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA's) issuance of vehicle ratings to inform consumers about rollover risk, Congress requested a TRB study to evaluate the appropriateness of the rating system. Motor vehicle rollovers involving passenger cars, vans, pickup trucks, and sport utility vehicles result in approximately 10,000 deaths and 27,000 serious injuries each year in the United States. NHTSA developed a five-star rating system to inform consumers about the rollover resistance of passenger cars and light-duty passenger vehicle trucks.

After thoroughly evaluating NHTSA's development of the rating system, the committee that conducted this study concurred with the agency's reliance on a static measure of vehicle stability but pointed out some inadequacies of the statistical model used to relate this static measure to rollover risk. Alternative statistical approaches would provide a better approximation of risk. The rating system itself was found wanting. The procedures used to develop and test the ratings with consumers through focus groups did not provide credible evidence that consumers understood the message about the actual risk associated with a given vehicle. By being limited to only five levels, the system also discarded valuable information. The data developed by NHTSA could be refined to enable consumers to discriminate better among vehicle models with regard to their rollover experience.

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