Car Trunk Handles May Be Required

The Associated Press

By CATHERINE STRONG

WASHINGTON (AP) - New cars would be required to have release handles inside trunks by 2001 under a federal proposal aimed at preventing the deaths of people trapped inside.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration plan would mandate the release mechanisms by Jan. 1 of that year, but allow automakers flexibility in choosing what type of handle or device to use, government officials and interest groups said Friday.

The proposal is expected to be announced next week and wouldbe followed by a public comment period.

Since 1970, there have been more than 1,100 incidents in which people have been locked in trunks - mostly adults locked in by criminals or children who unintentionally locked themselves in - according to the Trunk Releases Urgently Needed Coalition. At least 260 people have died, including 11 children during the sweltering summer of 1998.

The deaths of those children prompted the government to appoint an expert panel on trunk entrapment. In June, the panel, composed of industry, medical and consumer groups, recommended mandatory handles be required in vehicles to unlock trunks by January 2001.

The panel also urged automakers to voluntarily provide retrofit kits for opening older car trunks from the inside.

Major automakers have already responded.

Ford Motor Co. has a T-shaped handle that glows inside the trunk as a standard feature on its 2000 model cars. DaimlerChrysler AG plans to make trunk release mechanisms a standard feature for new Chrysler and Dodge cars by 2001, and Mercedes cars could also meet a 2001 deadline for a required release mechanism, spokesmen said.

General Motors was the first automaker to offer a retrofit trunk kit with a release handle for $50. Other automakers now have similar kits.

But research done by GM and shared with the agency showed many young children would not successfully use a trunk handle to escape. The youngest children, including the vast majority of 3-year-olds, were likely to be passive and stay trapped inside.

That prompted GM to work on a motion and heat detection system that automatically opens the trunk if anyone is trapped inside and the car is in park. The system will be in the Chevrolet Impala sometime during the 2000 model year and the company plans to put it on most family cars by 2002.

The more sophisticated system could take past the one-year deadline to develop and install on GM's cars.

"Our system, which we believe addresses children as well as kidnap victims, will not meet that deadline," said GM's Bill Kemp. "We didn't want to put just any kind of handle in. We wanted to make sure it was sensitive to children."

Janette Fennell, head of the Trunk Releases Urgently Needed Coalition, said handles must be made mandatory as soon as possible.

Heather Paul, the expert panel's chairman, commended the agency for acting quickly but also said she was interested in trunk-release systems that were "more foolproof but took a little longer" to develop.

"I hope automakers will choose the best technology that will be the most effective," said Paul, also executive director of the National Safe Kids Campaign.

Fennell said spot checks and consumer complaints indicate auto dealers often do not have retrofit kits available and are unaware they exist. "It's the best kept secret in America," she said.

Fennell, who was shut in a trunk at gunpoint along with herhusband in 1995, said her research showed nearly one in four adults locked into trunks die there. That number climbs to three in five for children under age 6.

AP-NY-12-10-99 1610EST

Copyright 1999 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without prior written authority of The Associated Press.

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