A recent article in the Detroit News Washington Bureau highlighted a current proposal by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).  NHTSA is a federal organization who is, among other things, responsible for issuing safety specifications which auto manufacturers must meet.  More generally speaking, they are responsible for making sure that auto manufacturers do not put profits over people.  They are supposed to be looking out for our safety.  Thus, it became quite an issue at a recent hearing why the agency was seeking to preempt state court lawsuits in connection with roof strength.  If this doesn't make sense, let me give you some background.

"Roof Strength" refers to the specifications that auto manufacturers must meet in regards to the force that a vehicle's roof can withstand.  This is primarily an issue in traffic accidents where the car rolls over.  Obviously, when a car flips over in a wreck, it will roll over onto the roof, crushing it down to some extent, which can be very dangerous to the occupants of the car.  The current standard says that vehicles weighing 6,000 lbs or less must be able to withstand a force of 1.5 times its weight.  NHTSA is currently proposing a new standard which would require vehicles up to 10,000 lbs to have a roof that withstands 2.5 times its weight.  This in itself is a very good regulation in regards to safety.  However, what NHTSA has also tried to do is sneak in a provision preempting any state court lawsuit for roof crush in a roll-over accident.  Essentially, what this means is that if you wanted to file a products liability claim against the car manufacturer for making a roof that was weaker than it was supposed to be, you would be forbidden from filing that suit in state court.   According to the article, at least 26 state attorneys general have written NHTSA asking that the preemption provision be thrown out.  Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri questioned "Why does NHTSA feel compelled to crush the rights of states?  There is a plot somewhere in this administration so they can wipe out the rights of Americans."

So why is NHTSA including this insidious clause in their new regulations?  I think that I have a pretty good idea.  NHTSA estimates that a 3.0 standard would cost auto makers at least $1.1 billion more than a 2.5 standard.  It is no secret that NHTSA frequently works with the auto makers when writing these new standards.  I think that it is a pretty safe bet that the auto makers put a lot of pressure on NHTSA to include this preemption regulation.  If they think that they are going to have to pay more money to meet these stricter safety regulations, I bet that they are trying to cut down on the number of lawsuits they may have to face in the future. 

 Roof crush and roll-over accidents are very specialized fields in products liability cases.  It is estimated that roll-over crashes account for more than 10,000 deaths per year.  While roll-overs represent only 3% of wrecks, they count for 1/3 of fatal accidents.  If you would like to speak with an experienced products liability attorney, contact Josh Myers.