General Motors Corp will make side curtain air bags that protect people in rollover crashes standard equipment on all retail vehicles by the 2012 model year, the automaker announced on Tuesday.
The announcement was made as GM unveiled a new US$10 million crash test facility in suburban Detroit that will help it study rollover crashes.
GM said it planned to perform 150 rollover tests next year at the Milford Proving Grounds to help the company better understand rollover crashes, which last year accounted for about 4 percent of all crashes but 33 percent of those occupants of passenger vehicles killed on US highways.
GM's new facility includes a 36m bay of lights, which can move from 8m above to within one foot of the floor and articulate to 27oC, allowing better illumination of the crashes that are captured on high-speed video for analysis.
Engineers demonstrated a rollover test during the facility's unveiling, which was attended by Nicole Nason, administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
Nason said her agency is working on rules to protect people involved in rollover crashes from being ejected from vehicles.
When asked if those rules would include rollover-protection air bags, she said: "Stay tuned."
GM said it now has rollover air bags on 43 percent of its trucks.
Nason also said NHTSA should have a final rule on electronic stability control requirements by early next year. In September, NHTSA proposed that all new cars, sport utility vehicles and other vehicles have stability control by the 2012 model year.
She lauded GM for its commitment to safety and the new facility.
"I think continued research on rollover crashes at facilities like this one is going to be helpful to everyone," she said.
Kevin Reale, an automotive analyst at AMR Research, said all manufacturers are developing similar safety systems that will make vehicles much safer in the future.
"I think everyone is probably trending down the path of increased safety, inclusive of additional air bags as well as other sensing devices that keep their occupants safe and improve stability of the vehicle to keep it from rolling over," he said.
More and more safety features will become standard equipment in the future as opposed to options, he said.
During GM's crash test, a red Buick Rainier approached a single-track ramp at more than 64kph, went airborne, landed on its side and slid into a large net anchored by retractable tension cables.
GM officials hope to find ways to keep people from being ejected in rollovers and develop sensors for rollover-enabled air bags, which can help reduce injuries and prevent ejections.
Rollover-enabled air bags stay open for five seconds compared with the basic head curtain air bag, which offers protection for about three-tenths of a second.
Bob Lange, GM's executive director for safety, said electronic stability control and rollover air bags will increase the cost of GM vehicles, but: "We think the value of providing this increased level of safety is well worth the cost."
GM plans to install electronic stability control on all of its vehicles by the end of 2010.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique