Automakers in the US will have to equip cars and light trucks with tire-pressure monitoring equipment under a new rule to help prevent accidents caused by underinflated tires.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration rule gives automakers compliance options for the first three years on models built after Nov. 1, 2003, after the companies opposed more stringent measures. Automakers may install equipment to warn drivers when pressure on one or more tires is 25 percent underinflated, or when one tire needs 30 percent more pressure.
Automakers have opposed some tire-monitoring rules for years, consumer advocates said. The new rule was passed after 271 highway deaths were linked to tread separations of Bridgestone/Firestone Inc tires, mostly on Ford Motor Co Explorer sport-utility vehicles.
"The new tire rule is a fraud on consumers," said Joan Claybrook, president of the advocacy group Public Citizen and a former NHTSA administrator. Claybrook said the group plans to sue to block the move, which she called "a political decision on the part of the White House on behalf of the auto industry."
The rule fails to meet statutory requirements such as including devices to measure pressure on all tires, she said.
Automakers said the move makes practical sense.
"We welcome the flexibility given in the final rule," said Rob Strassburger, vice president of vehicle safety for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, whose members build 90 percent of US-sold vehicles. "NHTSA was responsive to the underlying facts and science and took appropriate action."
About 27 percent of car tires and 33 percent of light-truck tires need more air, and 124 deaths and 8,722 injuries a year may be prevented with monitors on every tire, NHTSA estimates.
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