Ed Bobit: What If Fleet Managers Mandated Seat Belt Use? Would We Need Airbags?

The good things never seem to last.  Each time we begin idolizing a personality or group to whom we are inclined to give instant admiration and respect, our balloon is punctured.  Examples immediately brought to mind are the Carpenters and the Beatles who had etched their imaginative styling into our minds and now have found an outlet in a totally different kind of music.  It is like the late, great Edward G. Robinson, the classic bad guy, taking a Santa Claus role; or Milton Berle deciding to do Shakespeare with London's Old Vic company; or Pat Boone as Dracula.  So it is with the Lebanese Laff-Riot, the chrome-city Calvinist himself, Ralph Nader.

Nader, the self-appointed Bob Hope of the world o automotive safety, initiated his plea for the consumer in Washington with Detroit in mind, but has caught the attention of a concerned audience nationwide and so has extended his "act" into Peoria, Shelbyville and Dubuque, covering such other areas as sports in the major leagues and over-booking on airlines.  His gag-writers have been selected from some of the most liberal and astute young law grads and students that his studio can locate.  In spite of this, he now appears to be playing to something less that a full house.

In the traditional "Gallagher and Sheen" billing, it was really "Nader and claybrook" on the marquee when Joan was struggling for her big chance.  Yes, Joan Claybrook played the role of consumer advocate with Nader getting top billing until this important producer (the U.S. government) gave her her own show with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.  Besides Joan and Ralph we also had DOT Secretary Brock Adams filling out what some had expected to be a Marx Brothers movie on automotive safety.  A few months ago everyone was rolling in the aisles when Nader reportedly took Claybrook to task for her failure to act with more speed on the air bag and suggested that she might not be working with the right people to get the job done.  This marked the end of the laughing routine, but it was the funniest of all things to me.

In the not-a-laughing-matter of the air bag, we have reported the plusses and minuses at length and with a full realization that our industry does not want or need air bags because of the effectiveness of lap belts and shoulder harnesses as well as the added cost of the air bag.  It is time to call upon our industry to circumvent the mandated innovation.  And I have a suggestion that could lead to a reasonable solution.

The most recent DOT study we have been able to locate shows that only 18.5% of the nation's drivers use safety belts.  If it were 88.5%, we might not need air bags.  What if...the nation's corporate fleet managers developed a company policy demanding that their drivers use the belts?  What if...corporate management provided a real incentive for drivers to use their belts - maybe by honoring them?  What if...the insurance companies gave premium credits for companies that monitored and achieved high seat-belt usage?  What if...Detroit, NAFA, CARALA and the other fleet associations (taxi, utility, etc.) worked together with lessors in increasing belt usage to the point where the majority of drivers were convinced - and went to Washington with those facts?

The present 18.5-percent belt-usage rate is shameful when human lives are at stake, especially in light of the fact that the average fleet driver records more than 27,000 miles on his car each year (over twice the national average).  If we miss this opportunity then we surely are going to be saddled with air bags.  There is a solution and I do hope that the leadership exists to motivate high seat-belt usage on a national scale.

And the alternative - use of air bags - is no laughing matter.