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Inner sanctum: NHTSA threatens to mandate tougher interior safety standards for SUVs. Automakers oppose new regulations but stand ready. (Process).

Article Excerpt
Sport utility vehicles are under siege again. After being slammed by political and environmental groups for their poor gas economy, SUVs are now the focus of federal legislators looking at trends in truck-related accident fatalities. As automakers begin to respond, the net result in the short run may be a spate of new, more sophisticated safety systems for vehicle interiors.

SUV rollovers have been one of the top concerns behind recent activity in Washington, D.C. Since 1991, the number of rollover-related fatalities has more than doubled. The main cause of the fatalities is the fact that occupants are ejected, or partially ejected from the cabin.

So far, systems like curtain airbags have been introduced to keep passengers inside the vehicle and reduce head trauma during a rollover. But down the line, automakers and suppliers are looking to take a more holistic approach to better manage the occupant inside the cabin as the vehicle rolls.

"With the proliferation of airbags, we are working to design them into the interior as a complimentary system overall, working in tandem with seat belt features, such as pre-tensioning and load management, to provide a complete solution," says Thomas Vos, director of safety systems at TRW Automotive. "The belt still plays an important role in keeping the head away from the window, so you have to look at the overall performance."

The automakers introducing curtain airbags as options on their top-selling SUVs include DaimlerChrysler on the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Liberty, Ford with its Explorer and Mercury Mountaineer and General Motors on the Saturn VUE.

The question on the table is whether or not the government will make them mandatory. Legislators have been reviewing rollovers for some time, with no active regulation implemented or pending. But NHTSA chief Dr....