The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“THE TREAD ACT” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Transportation was published in the Senate section on pages S10614-S10615 on Oct. 17, 2000.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
THE TREAD ACT
Mr. FITZGERALD. Mr. President, I rise today to clarify the history and intent of section 14 of the Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability, and Documentation Act, which passed the Senate on Wednesday. This section of the legislation is based on the Child Passenger Protection Act of 2000, which I introduced on February 10, 2000 with my colleague from Arkansas, Blanche Lincoln, and my colleague from Pennsylvania, Rick Santorum.
The purpose of the Child Passenger Protection Act of 2000 is to enhance children's safety in motor vehicles. It calls for the adoption of improved child restraint safety performance standards and testing requirements, and it requires the Secretary of Transportation to provide parents with better consumer information about child restraints.
Child deaths in motor vehicle crashes in the United States have declined some since 1975, but significant work remains to be done in the area of child passenger safety. Motor vehicle crashes are the single leading cause of death and serious injury for young children in the United States.
Each year, up to 600 children under the age of five die in car crashes, and up to 70,000 are injured as occupants in motor vehicle crashes. Motor vehicle crashes cause about one of every three injury deaths among children 12 and younger in this country.
A child restraint that is installed and used correctly can prevent many injuries and deaths. The failure of some consumers to use age- and weight-appropriate child restraints has been well documented. Many consumers who purchase and use child restraints have little guidance or information with which to distinguish among the broad array of models, sizes, shapes and features of child restraints that are being sold in retail stores.
A child restraint that is well designed can prevent still more child injuries and deaths. The former top safety official at the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), Dr. Ricardo Martinez, stated, in a letter dated September 14, 1999 to all manufacturers of child restraints sold in the United States: ``[m]any restraints have been engineered to barely comply with some of the most safety-critical requirements of the [Federal] standard.'' NHTSA also has questioned the efforts of some child restraint manufacturers to have child restraint defects characterized as ``inconsequential'' to avoid recall campaigns, and the agency recently suggested that child restraints be assigned safety ratings.
NHTSA is the agency within the United States Department of Transportation that monitors the safety of child restraints. NHTSA's primary method for verifying that a child restraint is designed to meet Federal safety standards is its compliance testing program. In compliance tests, Federal regulators subject the child restraint to a sled test that simulates a frontal collision with a stationary object.
The sled test used by NHTSA to verify a child restraint's performance does not consider how that restraint will perform in rear-impact, rollover, or side-impact crashes; and the sleds used in government compliance tests bear limited resemblance to the interiors of today's passenger vehicles. These sleds feature flat bench seats with lap belts that were common in automobiles of the mid-1970s, but which do not apply to many of the passenger vehicles that are on our roads these days.
Child restraints are too often marketed for children who are heavier than the anthropomorphic test dummies used by NHTSA in these sled tests. One private group's testing has shown that child restraints tested with a child at the highest weight recommended by the manufacturer have failed. NHTSA should allow child restraints to be marketed for children at specific weights only if the restraint has been tested at those weights.
The current Federal standard for child restraints, known as Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 213, is overdue to be upgraded to better reflect new developments in technology.
While the current safety standard for child restraints specifies that child restraints be tested at an impact of 30 mph, tests are regularly conducted at speeds as low as 27.6 mph. The Government does not crash test any child restraints in actual motor vehicles; and it has not required that child restraint manufacturers simplify and standardize instructions for installing and using child restraints.
Finally, although head injuries from motor vehicle collisions frequently are the cause of serious injuries or fatalities, many makes and models of child restraints do not offer side-impact padding or other protection from head injuries in side-impact crashes. The Child Passenger Protection Act requires the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to initiate a rulemaking that would address these and other deficiencies in our current child restraint system.
Under this legislation, DOT will also begin a comprehensive program to provide information to consumers for use in making informed decisions in the purchase of child restraints. The Secretary must issue a notice of proposed rulemaking to establish such a program within 12 months of the bill's enactment, and it must issue a final rule within 24 months of the bill's enactment.
The Subcommittee on Consumer Affairs, Foreign Commerce and Tourism held a field meeting on June 19, 2000 in St. Louis, MO, to discuss the Child Passenger Protection Act. My colleague from Missouri, Senator John Ashcroft, chaired this field meeting, at which the subcommittee heard testimony from NHTSA, highway safety advocates, and a pediatric surgeon concerning the current state of child passenger safety and additional ways to improve safety. S. 2070 passed the full Committee on Commerce, with a substitute amendment, by voice vote on September 20, 2000.
This committee amendment to S. 2070, which has been incorporated into section 14 of the TREAD Act, also requires a study, within 12 months of the bill's enactment, of automobile booster seat use and effectiveness. In addition, this committee amendment requires DOT to develop a 5-year strategic plan to reduce deaths and injuries caused by the failure to use an appropriate booster seat for children between the ages of 4 and 8 years. The bill thus focuses more attention on an issue that automobile safety advocates have dubbed the ``forgotten child problem.'' This problem exists for children, usually between the ages of four and eight years, who have outgrown their infant child restraints but who do not fit properly in adult seat belts.
I want to close by extending my thanks to all who have so strongly supported this legislation, including the American College of Emergency Physicians, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, the Easter Seals KARS program, State Farm Insurance, SafetyBeltSafe U.S.A., the National SAFE KIDS Campaign, the co-authors of the book Baby Bargains, Consumers Union, and the American Automobile Association. I congratulate my colleague from Illinois, Congressman John Shimkus, who introduced companion legislation in the House of Representatives, for his fine work on getting this legislation included in the TREAD Act and through the House of Representatives on Tuesday. I am pleased that this important piece of legislation passed the Senate unanimously last week.
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