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Power windows can kill: small children can easily trip the window switches in many vehicles sold today, getting caught and even killed by a swiftly closing window. Better options could and should be used.

Article Excerpt
If asked to name the deadly hazards of today's automobiles, few motorists would mention the humble power-window switch. Most people don't realize that windows equipped with rocker or toggle switches on door armrests pose a serious hazard for children who lean out the window and inadvertently hit the switch with their elbow, knee, or foot. It takes only a few seconds for the window to roll up and fatally, strangle the child or cause serious injury, such as crushing the hands and fingers, abdomen, or throat and neck.

Cars made in Europe or made in the United States for export overseas have standard window safety features that cars made and sold in this country lack. Manufacturers have long resisted incorporating easy design changes for the models they sell in the United States. Instead, they continue to use rocker switches, which move the window up when one end of the switch is pressed and down when the other end is pressed, and toggle switches, which work when pushed forward and pulled back. Both can be inadvertently activated easily by a child.

Design changes that would enhance safety include moving window switches to a center console, using recessed lever-type switches that must be pulled up to raise the window, and incorporating an auto-reverse safety mechanism that causes the window to retract (like elevator doors) when it encounters an obstruction.

Kids And Cars, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing child injuries and death from motor vehicle incidents that don't involve traffic or crashes, has documented at least 37 children killed by power windows since 1990--most of them age three and younger. At least eight young children were strangled by windows in 2004 alone, and many other incidents may have escaped national notice. (1) A 1997 report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimated that 499 people were treated in emergency rooms for power-window injuries every year in the period studied, more than 60 percent of them children, 32 percent of the children five years old or younger. (2)

Safer alternatives

Studies have shown that power windows can exert an upward force of 50 to 80 pounds. Only 8 to 12 pounds is needed to overcome the weight of the window, leaving the rest of the force (40 to 70 pounds) to strangle or crush a child's neck, limbs, fingers, or hands. (3)

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, in response to reports of deaths and injuries, some foreign automakers redesigned power-window switches and began using auto-reverse in most of their high-end vehicles. In 1993, the Japanese Automobile Manufacturers Association proposed that the Ministry of Transport require that "[power-window] switches should be constructed so that they are less prone to incorrect operation, taking into account the extent of their projection and configuration in relation to the surrounding area." (4)

Today, auto-reverse mechanisms are commonly included on cars sold in Europe. In 1997, when NHTSA posted a notice of proposed rulemaking to revise the federal rule that governs power windows, Volvo Cars of North America, Inc., responded,

Volvo basically agrees that an improved design of power-window switches to make them safer against inadvertent closure of windows could provide some...

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