*EPF512 11/19/2004
Global Rule for Vehicle Safety Seen Step Toward Saving Lives
(New standard improves car door locks; more global regulations expected soon) (590)

By Wendy Lubetkin
Washington File Staff Writer

Geneva -- In a move hailed by governments and industry as a "milestone" in automotive safety, more than 20 countries agreed November 18 on the first global technical regulation for motor vehicle safety.
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The United States sponsored the new regulation, which will improve door locks and door-retention systems to help prevent injury and death due to passenger ejection.
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"This really is a pioneering achievement, and it should lead the way to greater global harmonization of rules that will provide even more safety benefit down the road," said Jeffrey W. Runge, administrator of the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
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The agreement creates a "win-win" situation for consumers and industry, Runge said, because the level of safety will be improved without raising the cost of the vehicles.
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Some 42,000 door openings or failures occur in accidents in the United States every year, and about 8,000 people were killed in 2003 as a result of being ejected from their vehicles, according to the NHTSA.

"Your chances of dying if you are ejected are about two-thirds, so you are much better off if you stay inside the vehicle," Runge said at a news conference at the United Nations in Geneva.
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The first-of-its-kind global technical regulation (GTR) is the result of three years of intensive research, development and negotiations supported by the U.N. Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).
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Jose Capel Ferrer, director of the UNECE Transport Division, said he was optimistic that it will be the "first in a long series of such global regulations, which will also improve the environmental performance of vehicles at the global level."
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Additional global regulations covering a wide range of areas including motorcycle brakes, head restraints, tires, child safety seats and on-board diagnostics for emissions monitoring are in discussion or under consideration for adoption, he said.
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Bernard Gauvin, chairman of the World Forum for the Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations, the UNECE body that negotiated the agreement, said that the group is also considering some "brand new regulations that exist nowhere in the world." These would include regulations for pedestrian safety and for new technologies such as hydrogen and fuel-cell vehicles.
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The current signatories of the agreement include major manufacturers and importers such as the United States, Japan, the European Union, South Korea and China. The regulation is considered global because it is open to any country. Vehicles that are not produced in accordance with regulatory standards cannot be exported to countries that are party to the agreement.
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Speaking at a separate press briefing, American automotive industry executives said they believed the new global regulations process would bring "best practice to the global market place" and improve safety and environmental protection round the world.
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Vann H. Wilber, director of vehicle safety and harmonization at the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, said the regulations also will result in cost savings because manufacturers will no longer have to design and test according to multiple different standards.
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Stephan Speth, director of safety at Daimler Chrysler, said the regulation adopted November 18 sets a "higher standard" and "raises the bar" across both U.S. and European requirements. For U.S. industry, the most significant change will likely be the new latching or warning signal requirements for sliding doors such as those found on minivans, he said.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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