Consumer car-safety activists are accelerating their drive for safer vehicles following the recent release of last year’s official traffic fatality figures. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that a troubling spike in motorcycle and pedestrian deaths, along with deadly van rollovers, contributed to an overall 1.4 percent rise in highway fatalities – the highest since 1990.

In 2005, 43,443 people died on the nation’s roads compared to 42,836 deaths in ’04.

Fatalities among occupants of passenger cars fared better, falling from 31,866 in 2004 to 31,415 in 2005, which is the lowest level since 1994. The amount of non-fatal reportable injuries attributed to vehicle crashes declined 3.2 percent from 2.8 million in ‘04 to 2.7 million in ‘05.

“These numbers are consistent with the ways vehicles are being manufactured today with an ever increasing emphasis on occupant safety,” says Dan Risley, executive director for the Society of Collision Repair Specialists.

“We’ve obviously seen the number of airbags in vehicles increase significantly – and when you couple that with things such as accident avoidance systems and stronger yet lighter substrates used to manufacture many of today’s vehicles, it isn’t a coincidence to see the numbers dropping,” he points out.

However, deaths from rollover wrecks saw a 2.1 percent increase; 10,816 in ’05 compared to 10,590 in ’04. Passenger cars had a slim 0.1 percent rise in rollover fatalities, while vans posted an alarming 14 percent increase. Pickup truck fatal rollovers rose 7.1 percent, with sport utility vehicles experiencing a 1.8 percent decline.

(NHTSA’s statistics on a state-by-state basis are available here: http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/departments/nrd-30/ncsa/STSI/USA%20WEB%20REPORT.HTM.)

This week Ford announced that by the end of 2009 all of its Ford, Lincoln and Mercury cars and trucks will be equipped with electronic stability control (ESC). ESC is currently standard on all Ford mid- and full-size SUVs, and ESC will be expanded to its smaller SUVs and every crossover utility vehicle in 2007.

“We believe our electronic stability control systems are further improving vehicle safety by helping prevent many accidents from occurring in the first place,” says Sue Cischke, Ford’s vice president of environment and safety engineering.

A recent study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety indicates that ESC systems can reduce single-vehicle crashes by more than 40 percent and fatalities by 56 percent.

Rollovers could be slashed by as much as 70 percent, predicts Tony Lombardozzi, president of the Coalition for Collision Repair Excellence.

“It’s going to make a big difference in SUVs, no doubt about it, because they’re top-heavy,” he says. “Rollovers create more bodily injury than in other crashes because you’re bouncing around in there, so this will help with bodily injury – but it will have a limited impact on the collision industry. Rollovers are minimal when it comes to the types of repairs done in a body shop.”

Most rollover wrecks result in the vehicle being totaled-out, according to Lombardozzi. At his shop, Automotive Collision Repair Services in Hudson, N.H., in the past year they’ve only one or two repairable onto-the-roof rollovers. And he notes that New England’s driving conditions – winding and mountainous roads frequently covered with snow – create a prime situation for these types of crashes.

Lombardozzi and Risley both expect few difficulties to emerge as shop owners gear-up to master the necessary original equipment repair strategies for anti-rollover systems and other safety components coming down the pike.

“The industry always seems to adapt,” says Lombardozzi.

“The collision industry continues to evolve as the OEs change the way they manufacture vehicles,” explains Risley. “I don’t foresee the standards dramatically changing the dynamics of the industry as they exist today,” he adds.

“The fact is,” Risley continues, “there is a growing trend of vehicles being manufactured with newer substrates such as ultra high strength steel or mega hard steel. This has posed a challenge to the industry in many different facets including how to repair or replace these parts. I would surmise that any standard that is considered would probably incorporate many of the challenges repairers are already faced with.”

This appears to be a healthy attitude to maintain, because the latest NHTSA statistics have galvanized consumer groups eager to enact tougher governmental standards for vehicle manufacturers.

“If the U.S. Department of Transportation were releasing data on aviation fatalities that mirrored the 2005 death and injury toll on our nation’s highways there would be calls for stronger government actions, legislative oversight hearings and speedy enactment of laws and other measures to advance safety,” says Jackie Gillan, vice president of the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. “Instead, legislation and government actions that have the potential to prevent crashes and save thousands of lives and billions of taxpayer dollars continue to languish in Congress and state legislatures.”

She goes on to note how “the legislative landscape for better safety laws is filled with detours, potholes and dead end routes…the 2005 number of rollover deaths in vans (up 14 percent) was especially disturbing.”

Gillan is particularly concerned over the numbers of children who are killed by vehicles in back-over incidents, strangled by power windows or crushed after inadvertently knocking gearshift knobs into drive.

“Each week at least three children die and 175 more are injured because of deadly blind zones that obscure children when drivers back up, power windows that can be as lethal as guillotines to young children caught in their grip and other non-traffic incidents. Last year, at least 222 children died in non-traffic incidents. Since 1999, over 1,100 children have been killed with over 157 fatalities to-date in 2006.” she reports.

Gillan’s organization – along with another association called Kids and Cars – is pushing Congress to approve the “Cameron Gulbransen Kids and Cars Safety Act,” which is comprised of Senate Bill 1948 and House Resolution 2230.

“Children are needlessly dying in red states and blue states,” says supporter Bill Nelson, whose son Alec was inadvertently backed over by a family member. Those in favor of the legislation “represent families from every political ideology, every income level and every ethnic group. This bill isn’t about politics. It’s about people, our children and public safety,” he adds.

The act, if passed, would address various safety issues by:

• Providing drivers with a means of detecting the presence of a person or object behind their vehicle;

• Ensuring power windows automatically reverse direction when they detect an obstruction to prevent children from being trapped, injured or killed;

• Providing for the vehicle service brake to be engaged to prevent vehicles from unintentionally rolling away (Senate version only);

• Providing for a reminder system for drivers who might inadvertently leave a child behind in the backseat of a vehicle, resulting in injuries and deaths from hyperthermia or other causes (House version only);

• Establishing a child safety program to disseminate information to parents about these hazards and ways to mitigate them.

The legislation does not mandate a specific type of safety technology; it directs NHTSA to issue appropriate standards.

The magazine Consumer Reports measures the blind zone behind each vehicle it tests, and many vehicles have dangerously large blind areas – including a 69 foot blind zone behind the 2006 Jeep Commander for a 5’ 1” driver, according to the publication. Tests reveal that vehicles equipped with rearview cameras completely eliminate the blind zone.

“Unfortunately, the few vehicles that now come with this rear-view technology are higher-end models, and most devices are available only as a costly option,” says Sally Greenberg, senior product safety counsel for Consumers Union. “We believe that rearview visibility is essential, and that we need a federal safety standard. The cost is nominal compared to the value of a child’s life.”

“We don’t have to wait until tomorrow for a cure or medical breakthrough,” observes Gillan, “because effective and affordable technology is available today to solve the problem and prevent these deaths.”