Same Hymn, Different Chord.(Column)(Column)

Byline: Dutch Mandel

A Page-One, above-the-fold headline in the local Sunday paper shouted to sleepy-eyed readers that the government wanted to take a different tack in the War on Traffic Deaths. The article suggested the feds would shift attention from the way in which people survive crashes to focus on developing more crash-avoidance technology.

Does that sound to you like the National Highway Traf-fic Safety Administration and its overseer, Dr. Jeffrey W. Runge, wants to take driving away from the driver?

The article was overstated. NHTSA doesn't want to substitute one focus for another; it wants to broaden its view to cover everything.

Opinions came from every corner. Joan Claybrook, former NHTSA administrator who now heads Public Citizen, a D.C. consumer-advocacy group founded by Ralph Nader, used delicious Belt-way gibberish to get her point across: "I'm all for technology improvements in vehicles, but that is no excuse not to act on crashworthiness,'' she said. Legislators opined, as did technology suppliers and carmakers themselves.

(Indeed, tech suppliers are salivating at the potential for federally mandated business. Bill Kozyra, president and CEO of Continental Teves North America, has been an outspoken advocate of "active safety.'' "If you help the driver make decisions and stay in control, we're confident you'll make the number of fatalities go down,'' he said. Not to mention you make the value of Continental Teves go up.)

For a moment, when Runge was first quoted, his pronouncement didn't sound so Orwellian dire. In fact, he foot-faked the audience into thinking a different interpretation could be in the offing. "I'd like to begin to focus on the event before the crash,'' he said.