Auto design changes save lives

This story is a good example of why we can't let businesses operate without oversight by the public sector. The fact that these changes, which have now been proven to save lives, was resisted by automakers demonstrate that their bottom line is ... threir bottom line! Concern for safety took a back seat (pun intended) and had to be forced upon the auto executives. They were afraid it would effect their bottom line and put a dent in their high salary. Capitalism is great! It is primarily responsible for the great advances society has seen over the past 150 uears. However, without eegulations and oversight, it is a force susceptible to greed. A greed which would hurt many innocent people at the advantage of a very few wealthy and influential individuals.

Design changes that automakers initially resisted and then reluctantly adopted have sharply reduced the number of deaths among drivers
of cars struck by a sport utility vehicle or pickup, according to results
from the first study of the standards. The study, by the Insurance
Institute for Highway Safety, using data from the auto industry and the federal government, found that in side-impact collisions the number of deaths fell by nearly half hen automakers lowered S.U.V.'s by as little as half an inch or equipped them with hollow impact-absorbing bars below the front and rear bumpers. The changes are intended to reduce the frequency of S.U.V.'s and pickups' sliding
over cars' doorsills and bumpers and piercing deep into cars' passenger compartments.
The changes also reduced by a fifth the risk that an S.U.V. would kill a belted car driver in a frontal collision. The same changes in pickups produced smaller but still significant safety gains. Not since the air
bag has a safety standard been so effective in saving lives, experts say.
"To cut somebody's risk of death in half, that's huge," said Ricardo Martinez, the top auto safety regulator during the Clinton administration. "That's almost as good as seat belts. You're lucky if a new regulation gets you a 5 or 10 percent reduction in the death rate."