By Joe Benton
ConsumerAffairs.com
December 2, 2005
Public Citizen is asking a Florida court to unseal safety tests from Ford Motor Co.'s Volvo division because the consumer advocacy group says the tests disclose flaws in a new standard for vehicle roof strength backed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
Joan Claybrook, Public Citizen's president, said the group had planned to put the documents on its Web site earlier this year but stopped after Ford threatened to sue.
Ford has repeatedly claimed that the documents reveal trade secrets and should remain hidden from public view.
"Ford is going to challenge this all the way, because the contents of these documents show that the roofs of vehicles could be made far safer than they are today and far safer than the NHTSA has proposed," Claybrook said.
The information contained in the Ford documents has been widely published but the consumer and safety advocates insist that disclosing the information will force NHTSA to revise the new rule for how well car and truck roofs should protect people in rollovers.
These documents are at the core of this vital public safety issue, she said. They show that Ford made the Explorers roof treacherously weak, and that Volvo has outlined a solution for all automakers that would prevent the ongoing tragedy of needless deaths in rollover crashes, Claybrook said.
Roof strength has become a key concern among auto-safety experts as the number of Americans dying in rollovers has grown to more than 10,000 a year.
The current rule, enacted in 1971, requires roofs to hold 1.5 times their weight and excludes many larger sport-utility vehicles and vans.
Ford has provided the documents in about 20 lawsuits, always under seal, and said in a statement it would continue to share them in legal cases.
