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WASHINGTON (AP) - About 120 people are killed and more than 6,000 injured each year by vehicles that back over them, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Safety advocates want NHTSA to study the issue more closely and consider a requirement that automakers include devices to warn drivers when something comes into their path as they back up. About 20 percent of 2005 model year vehicles offer cameras or sensors mounted on the back bumpers. The sensors beep warnings, and the cameras transmit images to screens on the dashboard or rearview mirror.

A new study found that if all vehicles were equipped with stability control, an electronic safety technology that the industry has been slow to adopt, some 7,000 lives a year could be saved. Stability control, which has sensors that determine when a driver is about to lose control of the vehicle and try to correct that course, reduced the risk of being in a fatal single-vehicle crash by 56%, according to the study to be released today by the Arlington, Va.-based Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. That group is the research arm of the insurance industry. It is the second...

DETROIT - The federal agency that oversees auto safety has decided - based largely on arguments from automakers and their Washington, D.C., lobbyists - that data relating to unsafe automobiles or defective parts will not be available to the public. Specifically, the government has banned the release of car and truck warranty-claims information, customer complaints and early-warning reports about defects from dealers, automakers and rental-car companies. The information is shielded even if media outlets or other groups push for it under the Freedom of Information Act. Federal officials say the rule will make them better able to enforce vehicle safety,...

Highway safety has been improving for years, and it's good to see the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration finally catching up with reality. In releasing its annual report on traffic fatalities Tuesday, the agency said U.S. roads are now safer than ever. That's good news, especially in August, when folks are packing up the family SUV for a week at the beach. But what a change from the doom and gloom of a year ago, when the agency warned that highway fatalities were at the "highest level since 1990" and suggested that the "grim" numbers were a reason to shame...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of U.S. traffic deaths rose nearly 1 percent in 2003 and reached a 13-year high at 43,220, the government reported on Wednesday. It was the fifth straight year road deaths rose, although passenger car fatalities decreased. Sport utility vehicle deaths went up roughly 10 percent over 2002, with more than half of the victims in those crashes killed in rollovers. Motorcycle deaths also jumped. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (news - web sites) said preliminary figures showed 405 more highway deaths overall in 2003 than the previous year and the most since 1990 when...

New Survey: Parents Report Placing Millions of Kids in Front Seat Although Back is Safer; Hundreds Died in Front Seat in 2002 2/9/04 2:45:00 PM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: National Desk Contact: John Chambers of the National Safety Council, 202-338-8700; 202-285-0448 (cell) News Advisory: -- Safety campaign announces national partnership to get more kids in back seat On Wednesday, Feb. 11, the National Safety Council's Air Bag & Seat Belt Safety Campaign will release results of a new national survey which shows that parents of millions of children ages 0-12 report that they place their kids in the front seat, putting...

Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety Applauds DOT Secretary's Call to Enact National Primary Seat Belt Laws 12/10/03 12:30:00 PM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: National Desk, Transportation Reporter Contact: Jen Maly of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, 202-408-1711, ext. 20 or jmaly@saferoads.org WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The day after U.S. Sens. John W. Warner (R-Va.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) introduced the National Highway Safety Act of 2003 (S.1993), Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety (Advocates) hailed U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) Secretary Norman Mineta's call to state legislators to pass primary seat belt laws in every...

<p>Top auto-safety regulator says SUVs vulnerable to rollover accidents due to high centers of gravity.</p> <p>NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - In another blow to one of automakers' most popular and profitable product lines, the top U.S. auto-safety regulator said sport/utility vehicles and pickup trucks aren't safe enough due to rollover risks and consumers should think twice about buying them, according to a published report Wednesday.</p>