COLLISION CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE

Be Informed, Stay Involved

by DENNIS CATALDO, JR.

With the Senate approval and pending House approval of HR 3684 – better known as the ‘‘Investing in a New Vision for the Environment and Surface Transportation in America Act’’ or the ‘‘INVEST in America Act” – I decided to thumb through the 1,934 pages of light reading and see what major areas directly pertained to our industry besides the overall improvements of road, bridges and highway infrastructure.

If passed by the House and signed into law by the President, the “INVEST in America Act” would give the Department of Transportation about two years to mandate the following items as it pertains to automotive safety in the United States. All of these items have a direct effect on the way we diagnose, repair and return vehicles to our customers:

Section 10101 would allow the Department of Transportation to mandate a safety warning for occupants of hot cars. “The warning required […] shall include a distinct auditory and visual warning to notify individuals inside and outside of the vehicle of the presence of an unattended occupant, which shall be combined with an interior haptic warning.” Additionally, a third-party study mandate that older vehicles be retrofitted with this newer technology is pending.

Section 10102 - Rulemaking to install automatic shutoff systems and rollaway prevention technology

in motor vehicles. This would set an idle limit on all vehicles as a means to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning and excessive greenhouse gases. It would also require technology to be developed that would detect the driverless or unattended rolling of a vehicle and stop it.

Section 10103 - 21st Century Smart Cars. This would require the following collision avoidance systems on every new vehicle sold in the US: Forward collision warning and automatic emergency braking, rear emergency braking when backing up, rear cross traffic alerts, lane departure warnings and blind spot warnings. It would also mandate the use of smart headlamps, automatic high beams and adaptive headlamp systems. These systems are nothing new, and I’m sure most of you have dealt with them. Just be aware that going forward, it will now be standard equipment on every vehicle you touch. You have the responsibility to the vehicle owner that you give the vehicle back with everything working and calibrated correctly. Also tasked under the 21st Century Cars provision would be funding research for advanced crash systems, such as Direct Driver monitor systems to prevent distracted driving, steering assisted lane keeping and automatic collision notifications for emergency responders. Not only would responding emergency crews know the location of the vehicle collision, but they would also have immediate access to the crash data to assess potential injuries and emergency response. All this technology could become standard vehicle equipment in as soon as four years.

Section 10104 deals with updates to the Five Star Safety Rating System and how the previously mentioned collision avoidance technology performs in new vehicles compared against one another.

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