clarinews@clarinet.com (GARY SILVERMAN) (02/02/90)
WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Saying back-seat lap belts are a ``menace'' responsible for hundreds of deaths and crippling injuries a year, a consumer group urged automakers Thursday to install inexpensive back-seat shoulder belts in all cars. New cars are required to have back-seat shoulder belts under an industry standard, but the Institute for Injury Reduction called for a joint effort by automakers, insurers and the government to make sure all 140 million cars now on the road are equipped with the shoulder harnesses. ``The rear-seat lap-only belt design remains a menace, and it represents a special threat to children because they are the more likely occupants of rear-seat positions,'' said the group's president, Benjamin Kelley. He said lap belts fail to prevent a passenger's head from hitting hard objects within a car and concentrate ``hugely increased amounts of force'' on the midsection, leading to spinal and abdominal injuries. In an interview, Kelley said children are less able than adults to withstand such force to the midsection. In one case, a Maryland boy's ``head was literally torn off (his spinal cord) by the whipping action,'' he said. The IIR plan, endorsed by dozens of doctors and other consumer groups, calls for car dealers to install ``low-cost'' shoulder belts and to promote their use. The group also wrote Transportation Secretary Samuel Skinner asking him to encourage companies to take such action and, if necessary, seek congressional authority to require them to do so. Kelley said U.S. cars built since 1970 have ``anchorage points'' for lap-shoulder belts and claimed such belts could be installed at the profit for about $40. But the IIR said its survey of 30 dealers in six cities found they ask an average of $200 and as much as $530 for the job. In all cases, they lacked the necessary supplies. Kelley said his group had not contacted auto companies about the plan. But he described the proposal as a reasonable response to an ``epidemic'' of injuries. ``I could argue that the auto companies should willingly do this for nothing, but I just want to get this moving,'' he said. Toni Simonetti, a General Motors spokeswoman in Warren, Mich., said the No. 1 automaker has sent materials to dealers encouraging them to install back-seat shoulder belts but cautioned that dealers are independent operators. `We're also looking at variety of ways ... to encourage dealers to pass savings on to customers,'' she said. ``We've been doing it all along. This is not a reaction to anything Ben Kelley had to say.'' Kelley's group was joined in its call by victims of lap-belt injuries and their relatives, including Oney Santibanez of Miami and her daughter Alexandra, who was left paraplegic at age 5. Santibanez said her Honda had a back-seat shoulder belt but the owner's manual said small children should only wear the lap belt. When another car ran a red light and struck her car, Santibanez suffered knee injuries. She learned in the hospital that Alexandra, now 7, would never walk again. ``The idea that other children and parents must suffer this way, all because the back seats of the their cars aren't equipped with shoulder belts, is intolerable,'' said Santibanez, who is now active in a group called the Miami Project, which is working to help paraplegics walk again. The IIR said the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that based on 10 percent use of back-seat belts, there are 410 serious or fatal accidents involving lap belts each year. The consumer group argued that seat belt use is closer to 30 percent, meaning there are about 1,200 such deaths and injuries every year.