Rolling over on rollovers; Congressional demands, not real-world need, spur latest crash-test standard.(National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, dynamic test standard)(Brief Article)

In February, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration posted an updated list of its rollover ratings for current model cars and trucks on its website (www.nhtsa.dot.gov)-an event that last year generated an enormous spike in the number of ``hits'' on the page, indicative of high consumer interest in such ratings. At the same time, NHTSA is developing a dynamic test standard to replace or supplement the current rating, which is simply a calculation based on the vehicle's width and height.

``We're seeing a really good correlation between the actual highway rollover accident data and [today's] rollover resistance ratings,'' said NHTSA associate administrator Stephen Kratzke. ``We don't know yet if our dynamic test will correlate as well.''

The dynamic test under development would involve a maneuver designed to initiate-or otherwise measure a vehicle's susceptibility to-an ``untripped'' on-pavement rollover. Most real-world rollover accidents involve leaving the roadway and having the car or truck ``trip'' on soft dirt or a roadside ditch. An untripped on-pavement rollover is an event the agency acknowledges as one of the least-frequent highway accidents. Hence Kratzke's concern that the resultant standard may or ...