Advocates Say Technology Exists to Prevent Accidents

By Greg Schneider
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 24, 2004; Page A01

At least seven children have died nationwide in the past three months by getting strangled in automobile power windows, prompting safety advocates to charge the auto industry and the government with dragging their feet in making relatively simple changes to reduce the danger.

Safety agency will require safer switches after growing number of deadly accidents

September 13, 2004

By Jeff Plungis / Detroit News Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON – Federal auto safety regulators will unveil new rules Monday calling for safer power window designs.

Chris Jensen
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Thursday, September 30, 2004

After one of the most amazing delays in the history of auto safety, the federal government has finally decided to require automakers to make it harder for small children to kill themselves by accidentally raising power windows.

Starting in October 2008, all light- passenger vehicles sold in the United States must have power-window switches that are "resistant to accidental activation."

For more than thirty years, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has had the opportunity to prevent power window incidents inflicting death and injury by requiring manufacturers to install proper preventive mechanisms, but has neglected to do so. These tragedies could have been prevented had manufacturers been required to install fail-safe technology to ensure that occupants could not be trapped in rising windows.