WASHINGTON – Congressman Dale E. Kildee (D-MI) this week urged the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to reconsider their approval of a foreign-built off-road vehicle without air bags to be sold in the U.S.  Kildee was joined by Michigan Reps. Fred Upton (R-St. Joseph), Vernon Ehlers (R-Grand Rapids), and Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, (D-Detroit) asking NHTSA to explain their decision to allow the sale of vehicles without such a vital, federally-mandated safety feature given the current economic difficulties facing the U.S. automotive industry. 

“American automakers adhere to strict safety regulations administered by the federal government, and they do so for the security of the driving public,” Kildee said. “Earlier this year, President Bush said American auto companies need to manufacture ‘a product that's relevant.’  Is providing a special exemption to a foreign-built off-road SUV without air bags relevant to meeting the demands of the American public when it comes to passenger safety?  Instead of bashing American automakers, maybe our President should ensure they are competing on a level playing field.”

On January 3, 2006, NHTSA granted an exemption to Cross Lander USA to sell the Romanian-made Cross Lander 244X without air bags until May of 2008 after concluding the company would go out of business without it.  Cross Lander claims it does not have the capital to pay for the design and installation of air bags.  NHTSA estimates 9,000 of the vehicles at most will be sold, at a cost of $20,000 each, and warning stickers highlighting the lack of air bag protection will be required on the vehicles.

Federal safety regulations require driver and front seat passenger air bags on all vehicles less than 5,500 pounds unless the manufacturer can establish it will encounter “substantial economic hardship” because of the rule.  Such an exemption is granted to small manufacturers who produce fewer than 10,000 vehicles a year.  Most NHTSA exemptions are granted to makers of specialized vehicles sold at low volume, such as replicas or sports cars.  They are normally not reserved for mass-produced vehicles in the highly competitive sport-utility class.

NHTSA’s own data shows that in the U.S. alone, air bags saved 14,227 lives between 1987 and 2003.  The safety implications for air bags are so great that Congress has mandated their installation on many different types of vehicles.