Making car power windows safer

Each year children die needlessly in and around vehicles. The Cameron Gulbransen Kids Transportation Safety Act, signed into law in 2008, is aimed at helping to reduce the statistics and making vehicles safer for children. The Act requires the Department of Transportation to research a number of vehicle safety issues related to children, including power window safety. Recently, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced a proposed rulemaking on adding technology known as auto-reversing systems (ARS) that would help avoid power window injuries by stopping a window if an obstruction is detected. NHTSA proposed not to mandate ARS on all windows and is seeking comment. Consumers Union (the non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports) sent in comments in response to NHTSA strongly urging the government to require ARS technology on all light-passenger vehicle windows. (Read the comments from Consumers Union.)
 
The safety issue with power windows was addressed in part in 2006 when NHTSA decided to ban power window rocker and toggle switches from U.S.-manufactured vehicles. Car makers must now equip passenger vehicles with safer lever switches (which must be pulled up to close the window) by Oct. 1, 2010. A number of consumer organizations, including Consumers Union, Kids and Cars, and the Center for Automotive Safety petitioned NHTSA to enact this regulation, but at the time, the agency omitted including the auto reversing technology. NHTSA has determined that the issue will be largely addressed by requiring the safer switch types and that most fatalities are a result of someone (mostly children) inadvertently hitting the switch.
 
NHTSA's research finds that 1,943 people are injured each year and six deaths occur from power windows closing on passengers. They estimate that the cost would be approximately $6 per window to add the feature. The technology is standard on most European vehicles, but it is on less than half the models from Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors.
 
Even though NHTSA is not recommending the new technology on all cars, they are proposing to require automatic reversal systems on windows that already have a one-touch or "express up" mechanism to close without continuous pulling up of the window switch by the operator. However, because most rear windows are not one-touch or "express up," Consumers Union believes the requirement for ARS should extend beyond these types of power windows. We have observed vehicles for which the auto-reverse function does not work if the switch is being held continuously.
 
We hope that this life and injury-saving technology will be mandated in the future. In the meantime, adults need to be extra vigilant when using power windows to make sure rear passengers and children are not in harms way. And let this be a reminder not to leave children unattended in a vehicle, especially one that is running or has accessory power on.
 
For a list of 2009 vehicles that are equipped with ARS see safercar.gov. ( Download pdf.)

Read: "Which power-window switches are safer?"

For more on child safety, see our kids and car safety guide.

— Liza Barth