Made In America NHTSA Loophole in Regulations – Kills Americans in Limos

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

International Business Times reports:

“In 2013, makers of so-called motor coaches — limousines, entertainment buses and shuttle vans — convinced the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to exempt vehicles with “perimeter seating” — seats that point inward — or with fewer than eight forward-facing seats from new rules aimed at bolstering “commercial bus safety.”

The exemption is aimed at allowing makers of airport shuttles and other buses that carry multiple wheelchair positions to forego certain common safety features. But as a result, limousine makers — which purchase vehicles like Lincolns, cut them in half, elongate them, and alter the interiors to accommodate a more luxurious and spacious atmosphere — can avoid the cost of adding extra safety belts and air bags to the vehicles. Larger party buses, essentially rolling nightclubs, are also exempt under the guidelines….

Clarence Ditlow, head of the Center for Auto Safety, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, says for years his group has tried to ring alarm bells over limousine safety. In 2013, five nurses in California burned to death in a limousine firebecause they were trapped inside, unable to reach the doors at the back-end of the vehicle with only an opening in the partition that separates the driver from the party.

Ditlow says federal regulators aren’t doing enough to ascertain the general safety of limousines.

“It’s been our long-stated position that the National Transportation Safety Board has been absolutely remiss in tracking limousine accidents,” said Ditlow. “There’s a whole issue about what safety standards should apply to these vehicles.”See

http://www.ibtimes.com/long-island-limousine-accident-exposes-dangerous-flaws-party-vehicle-safety-2022650