The Safety Struggle

The U.S. Congress is in a mood to pass an auto-safety law far stricter than anyone thought possible just a few months ago. This mood hardened last week, even while the industry was pleading its case before the Senate Commerce Committee.

What the industry fears most is that Congress, in the name of safety, will pass legislation enabling bureaucrats to tell Detroit stylists how to design their cars. Speaking for management at the hearings, Ford Vice President John Bugas proposed an alternative: let the carmakers police their own safety through a board made up of four auto-company presidents and an outside chairman. "Whatever has happened in the past," said Bugas, "this industry is alive and awake--we truly are." He also suggested that the industry would have pooled its safety information, but it feared antitrust prosecution. He contended that the Justice Department has been investigating the companies for their role in developing antipollution devices for auto exhausts.

Next day, Committee Chairman Warren Magnuson fired back at Bugas' testimony by reading part of a letter from U.S. Antitrust Chief Donald F. Turner. The Justice Department, said Turner, has indeed been investigating the auto companies--because of their "cooperative efforts to suppress, not to promote, the utilization of auto emission devices." Moreover, said Turner, the antitrust law has not barred agreements among companies "to develop safety devices or to exchange information concerning standards where joint efforts seem necessary and constructive and are not accompanied by unduly restrictive collateral agreements."

Toward the Mandatory. To the Senators, mostly skeptical and highly critical of the automakers, Bugas' proposal for industry self-policing was unsatisfactory. The real question was whether Congress would accept President Johnson's original proposal that a soon-to-be-created Secretary of Transportation be granted "discretionary" powers to establish and enforce safety standards beginning with the 1970 models--or press for a tougher bill making it mandatory for the Secretary to lay down such standards beginning with the '68 models. In support of the harsher version, the committee called up a succession of educators, lawyers, Canadian legislators--and even Teamster Top Dog Jimmy Hoffa, who found himself in the unusual position of being a sympathetic witness in a congressional hearing. Calling for strict Government safety regulations for trucks as well as cars, Hoffa said: "If you leave it to somebody's discretion to pass minimum safety standards, there wouldn't be any standards." He also showed a film plugging a fifth-wheel device for trucks, which he said would prevent many jackknifing accidents.

The White House passed word that President Johnson would now be more than happy to support a tougher, "mandatory" bill. In all likelihood, the Government will be empowered to order that all cars have more padding, fewer knobs, fire-resistant upholstery, safer glass and door locks--and to fine the domestic manufacturers $1,000 per violation (or countless millions on a year's production of a major model), and to seize foreign autos that fail to meet the standards.

Calling All Cars. In the midst of the safety debate, General Motors asked its dealers to call back 1,500,000 of its Powerglide-equipped cars--1965 Chevrolets and 1964 and 1965 Chevelles--to fix faulty parts. G.M. discovered that on long drives in wet snow, slush could accumulate in the linkage rod and freeze the accelerator into a locked position so that the driver could not slow down or stop. Though G.M. said that it had received only five reports of stuck accelerators, it was calling in all the cars to install a V-shaped splash plate under the transmission, at a total cost to the company of $3,000,000.

Manufacturers often quietly call in their cars, but dealers can be casual about getting the word to their customers. For this reason, Connecticut's Democratic Senator Abraham Ribicoff asked that the manufacturers hand over to him all their secret messages to dealers on defects since 1960. The companies agreed. Among the recent defects:

> Chrysler has recalled 16,700 of its 1966 cars--mostly Chrysler Newports and Plymouth Fury station wagons, but also a few Dodge Monacos--in an attempt to find and replace about 250 wheels known to be faulty.

> Lincoln recalled 40,000 of its 1965 Continentals because the brakes had a tendency to overheat; the company put in a new heat-resistant brake fluid.

> Buick recalled 500 of its 1965 Le Sabres because engineers found that nuts in the braking system could loosen after 25,000 miles or more.

> Chrysler recalled its 1965 Newports, Furys and Dodge Polaras with manual steering, because a hard turn could snap a bracket weld in the steering shaft.

> Pontiac recalled 80,000 of its 1961 Tempests to correct a low-hanging frame under the engine.

Despite the furor over safety, the industry's sales have never been better. In March, Detroit sold 846,710 cars, up 3.7% from a year ago to an alltime record for any month. The Commerce Department predicts that sales this year will at least equal last year's 9,300,000 U.S.-made cars; in addition, foreign producers expect to increase their U.S. volume by at least 10%, to 600,000. But one car conspicuously trails behind in the parade. It is the Corvair, which is involved in more than 100 damage suits concerning its 1960-63 models. There is no evidence that the '66 Corvair has any of the bugs of earlier models, but it is undoubtedly suffering from bad publicity because the safety theme is getting through loud and clear to buyers. Last week Chevy Chief Elliott ("Pete") Estes reported that Corvair sales are lagging 30% to 40% below last year's rate.

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