STATUS OF TWO DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION AIR BAG PROJECTS

This report discusses two National Highway Traffic Safety Administration air bag projects. One project is a joint effort with the General Services Administration to purchase 5,000 motorpool cars with driver-side air bag systems. The other project involves a contract with a private firm to design and produce air bag retrofit kits to be installed on the driver side of 500 state police cars. The estimated cost of these projects is about $6.35 million. GAO found that the Safety Administration is authorized to conduct these projects as research and development activities and to promote or encourage fleet owners to place orders for cars with air bags. GAO also found that the fleets involved in the projects will not provide statistically significant data on the effectiveness of air bag systems in reducing car accident injuries and fatalities. However, the Safety Administration expects the projects to provide useful information on the auto industry's air bag production capability; the performance, reliability, and maintainability of air bags; and whether the fleet drivers will accept air bags. (Author)

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Report to the Chairman, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Committee on Energy and Commerce House of Representatives.
• Corporate Authors:

  U.S. General Accounting Office

  441 G Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20548
• Publication Date: 1984-9-10

Media Info

• Features: Appendices; Figures; Tables;
• Pagination: 25 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Air bags; Automobiles; Demonstration projects; Development; Federal government; Fleet management; Measures of effectiveness; Planning; Procurement; Research; Retrofitting
• Uncontrolled Terms: Effectiveness; Research and development
• Geographic Terms: United States
• Old TRIS Terms: Fleet planning
• Subject Areas: Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Research; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment; I91: Vehicle Design and Safety;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00392128
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: GAO/RCED-84-177, HS-038 196
• Files: HSL, TRIS
• Created Date: May 31 1985 12:00AM