WASHINGTON -- A three-judge
federal appeals court panel Friday questioned the legitimacy of a lawsuit that
challenges a new federal regulation requiring tire pressure monitoring systems
on all new vehicles starting this fall.
Tire makers and auto safety group Public Citizen claim in
their lawsuit that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's
regulation falls far short of what Congress intended when it passed a 2000 law
requiring that all vehicles be equipped with such monitors by Sept 1. The
legislation came in the wake of a recall of 13 million tires on Ford Explorers
and other vehicles that were linked to nearly 280 deaths.
During a hearing before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia, Judges David Sentelle, Brett Kavanaugh and A. Raymond
Randolph questioned whether the tire makers and Public Citizen had the legal
right or "standing" to file the suit. Friday's hearing came more than three
years after another appeals court threw out NHTSA's first tire pressure
regulation, issued in 2002.
The plaintiffs must overcome several hurdles. One is showing
that there is a higher risk to motorists from the tire-monitoring regulation
that NHTSA imposed versus the one they support. They also must show they have a
legal right to file the suit.
Marc Machlin, a lawyer for Public Citizen, noted that more
than 78,000 accidents yearly are caused by under-inflated tires. "It's a very
serious issue," Machlin said, before he was quickly cut off by Sentelle.
Sentelle said if there is only a general risk for everyone,
the matter is best decided by "the political branches" -- i.e. Congress and the
White House. Sentelle said under the Public Citizen theory, drivers, passengers
and pedestrians -- basically everyone in the United States -- would have a right
to sue.
"If everyone has standing, than no one has standing," he said.
"What has the (Transportation) department done to prevent the companies from
making safer tires?" Sentelle questioned how federal regulators could be held to
account by tire makers.
But Kavanaugh also asked some tough questions of Justice
Department attorney H. Thomas Byron III. He said it was "odd" that NHTSA could
"water down" or effectively eliminate some of the requirements that Congress set
in its statute.
Byron said Congress couldn't have meant to mandate an
"impossible" requirement, namely that automakers certify that their systems work
with all replacement tires.
NHTSA acknowledges that up to 1 percent of replacement tires
would make tire pressure systems inoperative -- or 2.25 million of the 225
million replacement tires sold annually in the United States, a figure Byron
sought to downplay.
"That's still a lot," Kavanaugh said. Friday's hearing lasted
about an hour. The appeals court will issue a written ruling later this year.
Public Citizen, along with tire makers Goodyear Tire & Rubber,
Bridgestone/Firestone North America, Cooper Tire & Rubber and Pirelli Tire, and
the industry trade group Tire Industry Association, filed the suit against the
U.S. Transportation Department and NHTSA.
"NHTSA's watered-down standards will cause more tire failures,
leading to more deaths, injuries and property damage than standards meeting
statutory requirements," lawyers for Public Citizen, the safety advocacy group,
wrote in a legal brief filed last month.
$1.2 billion annual cost
It has been estimated that the requirements will cost
automakers up to $1.2 billion annually to fully implement, beginning in the 2008
model year. Car manufacturers argue the lawsuit is an attempt by the tire
industry to shift their warranty costs onto them.
Tire makers say NHTSA's regulation puts drivers and passengers
at risk because it fails to provide for warning drivers of low tire pressure
soon enough, doesn't require the systems to work with replacement tires and
allows the monitors to be tested under conditions that don't take into account
cold weather extremes, which can alter tire performance.
The regulation being challenged mandates that tire pressure
monitoring systems alert drivers within 20 minutes if any tire is 25 percent or
more below the recommended inflation level. NHTSA's prior proposal had set the
figure at 10 minutes.
When the systems are in place, a tire's pressure sensor signal
is sent to a computer that lights a warning signal on the dashboard.
The rule under challenge also says all testing on the system
would be done on a test track in San Angelo, Texas, which critics said would not
take into account cold weather.
The regulation was issued in April 2005, after an appeals
court ruled in August 2003 that NHTSA's regulation, which set the alert level at
30 percent below recommended inflation, adopted "a standard that permits plainly
inferior systems" and that was "arbitrary and capricious."
Related Articles and Links
-
Final appeal brief from
Public Citizen and tiremakers (pdf)
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Brief from
Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (pdf)
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Brief from Justice
Department, NHTSA (pdf)