
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, September 2, 1993                   TAG: 9309020046
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

AIR BAGS MANDATORY FOR '98 CARS

Front-seat air bags will be a mandatory safety feature in new cars beginning with the 1998 model year.

The final rule on air bags is scheduled to be issued today by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Transportation Secretary Federico Pena said Wednesday.

At least 95 percent of each manufacturer's car fleet built on or after Sept. 1, 1996, must be equipped with air bags and manual lap and shoulder belts for driver and front-seat passenger seats.

For the model year beginning Sept. 1, 1997, all passenger cars will be required to have air bags and manual belts in the front seat.

Air bags also will be phased in for light trucks. All light trucks will have to carry front-seat air bags and belts beginning with the 1999 model year.

The time frame was set up in a 1991 transportation law. The auto safety agency formally proposed the rule in December.

The standard now says automakers can offer automatic seat belts, air bags or any other device that provides automatic protection in a 30-mph crash test.

"We want to emphasize that it is critical for passengers in automobiles and trucks to wear both lap and shoulder seat belts even with air bags," Pena said in a telephone interview from San Francisco. "When both are used, there will be thousands of lives saved and many thousands of serious injuries avoided."

Pena also emphasized that parents shouldn't put rear-facing child seats in the front-seat of vehicles with air bags because the child could be injured when the bags inflate.

Issuance of the final rule is anticlimactic because most manufacturers will meet the standard before they are required to, said Brian O'Neill, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

"Over 90 percent of the car models in this coming year will come with air bags as standard driver equipment, and most of them will come with driver and passenger air bags," O'Neill said. "The only thing that prevented the industry from [a greater percentage] was the speed with which the manufacturers could re-engineer and design and get the bags in there."

by CNB