SPP: Unsafe at any speed

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SPP: Unsafe at any speed

November 27, 2007
Posted by Brent Patterson

"Moving Toward a Fully Integrated Auto Sector," is an objective of the Security and Prosperity Partnership's so-called Prosperity Agenda. Within that objective are three initiatives listed as follows:

Create the trilateral Automotive Partnership Council of North America;
Promote greater compatibility in autos and auto parts regulations, standards and conformity assessment, while ensuring safety and environmental protection; and
Coordinate Canada, U.S. and Mexico safety and environmental regulation development with UN/ECE/Global Technical Regulations.

Two recent articles shed some light on the possible implications of this second initiative related to regulatory harmonization.

Children's Car Seats
Last week, CTV.ca reported that: "Canadians who are taking advantage of the lofty loonie and doing some cross-border shopping should pass on making one key purchase in the U.S.: an infant or child car seat. That's because it is illegal to use a car seat bought outside of Canada."

Canadian regulations differ from those in the United States, reported CTV. "For example, U.S. certified booster seats have a lower weight limit than Canadian standards. Car seats bought outside of Canada don't meet standards set by Canada's Motor Vehicle Restraint Systems and Booster Cushions Safety Regulations (RSSR) or those of the Canada Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (CMVSS), and do not bear the National Safety Mark required in Canada."

Anti-theft devices
On November 9, the Globe and Mail reported on, "a Transport Canada regulation that requires 2008 vehicles to have a device that deters car thieves, something known as a theft immobilizer." Vehicles sold in the United States, the Globe continued, "are not required to have the component [and] vehicles without the immobilizer systems are banned from importation into Canada by the Registrar of Imported Vehicles, the Transport Canada department that decides which cars and trucks are allowed in.

"The Canadian anti-theft requirement," wrote the Globe, "has auto makers seeing red because they have been pushing Ottawa for years to harmonize our regulations with those south of the border and not introduce standards that apply only in this country."

GM Canada spokesperson Stew Low is quoted in the article asking, "why Transport Canada has chosen to continue a path of unique Canadian standards and not worked to harmonize standards across North America." In response, Transport Canada spokesperson Jessie Chauhan says, "The assessment of the department was that based on research, it would help cut down on injuries and fatalities from car thefts." The Globe and Mail reported that, "Transport Canada tried to persuade the auto makers to agree voluntarily to a Canadian standard but was unable to do so."

Power windows
On July 6, 2004, CBS News reported that: "At least seven American children have died in the last three months, strangled in accidents involving power windows. But the danger is no secret to carmakers or the federal government. Consumer advocates have been pushing for safer power windows for almost a decade...The solution? David Champion, Consumer Reports director of auto testing, says it already exists in every foreign car sold in America: safer, lever-type switches required by law overseas that are virtually impossible to activate accidentally.

CBS continued that, "Experts say safer power windows would not cost more, but here in America, there's no law requiring them… The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it's working on new power-window safety regulations, but has no date when they'll be introduced."

As noted recently on the CBC Marketplace website: "Car makers in the United States have to use the new lever switches (the least likely to accidentally operate) starting next year. In Canada, vehicles have to be compliant in 2010. The reason for the changes was to reduce injuries and fatalities, especially to children who accidentally lean on them. They have been known to cause injury and sometimes death." But Janette Fennell, the founder of Kansas-based Kids and Cars, has said this measure won't help if someone else is rolling up a car window, unaware that fingers or hands are in the way.

In March 2007, Autonet.ca reported that: "The tragic death of two year old Sienna Rose Manson (in February 2007), who was unknowingly caught in a power window of a SUV in Calgary when her mother stepped into work, has led many to wonder if power windows are safe or not and what the regulations are. The fact is that Transport Canada, who works with vehicle manufacturers to set safety standards, knew something like this could happen. In fact, they were already in the process of changing the standards to try and make them safer."

Autonet quotes Jean-Francois Roy, regulation development engineer at Transport Canada, as saying, "We have been working to create new regulations that are similar to U.S standards, we've never had a situation like this before but there have been many in the U.S."

Conclusion: SPP will not make us safer
The stated goal of the Security and Prosperity Partnership is to "promote greater compatibility in autos and auto parts regulations, standards and conformity assessment, while ensuring safety and environmental protection."

It appears that American child car seats and American cars that lack anti-theft devices are less safe than what is currently required in Canada. It also appears that U.S. government action on power windows was slow even when there was clear evidence of danger and almost no costs to implementing needed safety measures.

If this is the case, it may be fair to ask what the real costs of the SPP harmonization agenda may be for Canadians and auto safety.

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