Steps Toward Safety

More than 50,000 Americans will be killed in auto accidents this year. That is an estimate by the National Safety Council, and such statistics have heightened demands from Congress that Detroit's automakers do more to make cars safe. Responding to that pressure, General Motors Corp. last week passed a minor but significant milestone on the road toward greater driving safety. Chairman Frederic Donner and President James Roche announced that on all its 1966 cars, G.M. will incorporate as standard equipment six safety features that are now optional on most models. The items: rear seat belts, padded dashboards, padded sun visors, backup lights, outside left-hand mirrors and windshield washers hooked to electric wipers (which maintain a steady beat regardless of the speed of the car).

Shoulder to Shoulder. As G.M. goes, so go the rest of the automakers. Two days after G.M.'s announcement, President Roy Abernethy of American Motors said that it would install similar equipment on all '66 cars; Ford's Chairman Henry Ford and Chrysler's President Lynn Townsend will almost certainly follow. On the rare occasions when Detroit's chiefs get together, such as last month's board meeting of the Automobile Manufacturers Association, car safety is a frequent topic.

Neither G.M. nor American would say whether the added costs of safety would be passed on to buyers, but the automen in the past have raised prices whenever optional equipment became standard. The minimum price for the six extras, based on what they now cost on a '65 Chevrolet Bel Air: $65.45. Undeterred by extra costs, the Government's General Services Administration henceforth will order not just six but 17 safety devices on the 60,000 cars a year that it buys for official use. Many Congressmen want Detroit to put in some of these devices as standard equipment on all cars--notably a two-section steering column that collapses on impact, fail-safe twin brakes and stronger seat anchors.

Calming the Critics. This week the automakers will testify in Washington before a Senate subcommittee that is examining one of five bills now before Congress that would ultimately force the companies to build in more devices to help prevent accidents, or at least make them less severe. The companies will send their top executives to the hearings: G.M.'s Donner and Roche, Ford Motor Co.'s President Arjay Miller, American Motors' Abernethy, and two Chrysler vice presidents.

Last week's steps toward safety seemed timed to put the companies in a good light for the hearings, and to an extent Detroit's decision did. Said Connecticut's Abraham Ribicoff, the subcommittee chairman, who is often critical of Detroit: "It represents a good start toward making our cars not only the best but also the safest."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.