LegHist.PL89-563.Volume.ONE.Sec.Ten.and

1Wt8 $4LSIEIscEf
who sen'es EE the rank-
lng mamb+t on the Itrterstate flnd Forelgn
Comerce Coftmltt€e reportlng out
thls leclsletion. As a very eminent lawyer
ffid onetime judge. he ls Bbly quellfled
to sulde the destinies of this vera lrnportant
comtnlftee of the House. He is
very thorough Rnd meticulous in his
work, handli:ig soine of the most sensitlvc
lesislallott in the congress hnving
to do with irlterstat€ commcrce. Mcmbrrs
of thls Houc hBve the utmost confldence
in his carefid welghlng of 8ll the
Bfgulnents and in his ultimate decisions.
f $urely intend to suptsrt his arnendment
to thls blll tr$ R ntre.ssaty improvetnent
Rnd I do lntend to suppott the biu
on linal passage,
I musi join with those, Mr. chRirm8n'
who heretnfore thi.c aftemoof, lrave made
the Lloint thRt mere passaee of this legislation
will rnakc no deci(tFd dent in lhe
tramc fai:aliLy rat€. As the genlleman
from cali.iorniii IMr. YotrNcER] pointed
out ln his esrlier remark$, we cad force
the aut[moblle manuJacturers to illstsll
seat belts, but we caflnot force the driver
of passenger to buckle the seet b€1L5, and
the statlstlcs cited bv the Eentleman
Irom Californlb IMr. YoUNGER] are
ample evidence of thls.
The Accident Prevention Divlslon oi
the U.S. Prrbilc Health Servlce has
fl.nrinced the fllmlns of ddver behavlor
for over 300 drivers ln Wa$hington' D.C'
Thes drivers. selected Bt random. were
fllmed f or 5 minutes of continuous
drivitrB without thetr knowledge, and the
fllms show thet 9? percent of the drivers
conr.rnltted at lest one error during thls
ttme and 38 percelrt were guilty of at
leEst ond vlclatlon.
The average number of error-$ sEs
9.18. As expected, slleedlng was the most
frequent error, noted ln 87 percent of
the cases. Failure to $tey ln one's own
lane wBS noted in 63 Percent of the
cBses.
These tests simFly reemptHslze "vhat
we elready know. The key tu lnost trsffic
safety i6 the drlver himself irnd I think
It would be treglc lf t.llis leglslBtiorr u'ere
to take the spotllght from the role of the
driver and place it solely on the road und
the vehlcle.
I camot refraln lrom makinE fientlon,
tm, Mr. chalrfilsn, of the frishtenlng
rate of accidents directly attributable to
drunken drivers or those comumirlg
varylng degrees of alcohollc beverBges'
I've been trying for $everal Inontls to
draft a piece of legislf,tion thst would
get st this p&rticulat problem and have
run into all kirds of problems. W:hen I
was over in Sweden thls sprlng' I learned
that atryone picked up for dmiken drivlng
ls automatically lhrown in jail for a
30-day sttnt and therc 8re no exceptions
to the rule. I! was itrterestlng to note
whlle altending several soclal functlonE
where al\rotrol wss ctnsumed that at least
one drlver of each automoblle at ihe affatr
totelly Bbstalnecl for that evenlng.
The law ts $trlctly enforced and lt ls
psylng cllvidends.
Ou problem stems from the fact tb,et
we have a considerably difierent Constitutton
End to dfsft f, blll th4t does not
treBd upon sn lndlvldual's constltutloml
rlghts to do celtaln things is extremely
difficult, but we hope to come up with t
sterter lrl the near future.
rn concluslon, Mr. Chalrman, the per8ntount
consideration and clntrollltrg
fsctrr in autonrot)ile safety i6 the driver,
s,nd it is indeed dimcult to control him
by Federal edict.
TIr. STAGGERS. Mr. ChBITrnEN, I
yield such ti-rne BS he may require to the
gentleman from Mlchlgen [Mr,
DTNoELLI.
Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Chah'man. I want
to thank my chairmen for his kindness
in yielding to rne. Thele sre s nmber
of points I rvdnt til raise with respect to
the corttents of thls legislstion, parucularly,
I hope, dealins wlth questions of
lcad time Nhich is une of vital import$ce
to the industry which is one oI
the princirriil ernployer$ in the dl$trict
that I hilve the honor to represent ln
Congress.
As the rnembership of the coftmittee,
and anyone else familiar with the industry
knows, lead ttfle is a lno$t important
lnatter. Modern cBrs are complefi
mechanisms, mede up oI over 14,000 lnt€rrelated
pf,rtE. This complexlty and
the looling and other tequilements for
hlgh volme rnass production ntre$$itate
B substsntial perlod between m initiel
design concept md productlon. Currently
lt takes a, period of 2 yeErs or 60
in the indutry to accompllsh the neces-
$ary de$i8xr, engineerlntr End testttg work
to procure the materials and toollng and
to lsy out the production Une. It al8o
tehes time to Erake chmecs. WhEt
seemg to be a simple ch8nFe to &ccompllsh
ln one part of $tructue may neceBsltstd
B serles of difficult change$ or adjutmentE
in other3, &nd considerable
time can be requlred for that, ranElna
from e few monthJ to rs much Bs 2 YeatE
or ffiore. Because leed tlme ls so tnportant,
lt B one of the factors thEt thc
blll empowers and requlres the Secretst'y
to take into accomt ln estdbllsltlng
standhrds. end the S€ctetary has stEted
that he will do so.
Thus the bill in section 103 requlre8
that staJrdards must be practicable antl
thet the Secretary must consider whether
they are reason8ble, practlcable. and
sppropriate for the partlculaf type ol
vehlcle or eouipment for whlch they Brd
prescribed. Obvlously, & stEndard ls not
practicable or reasonable if lt calxrot
be met by the best efforts of manufactuers
within the constralnts of tlme and
technolo8y. As the commlttee's repolt
states, "StBhderds, of course, dannot be
*t in B vtruum," and the Secretary, in
seiiirl8: studards, ls requircd to glve
con$ideratlon to "aU relevsnt fbctors, lncludlng
technologlcal Ebllity to achlevg
the goAl of a partlcular stanilerd es well
&s consideratiorr of economic fectots."
ArnonB those economlc fectors whlch the
Secretary wiU have to conslder ls the
mBtter of adequatd le&d tlme. As thB
Depattment of commerce advlsed ln a
letter dated Jue 3, 1s66, to the chalrulan:
Tb6 tests of rtuoqablGnega ot cost. fesl.
btuty sEd adequata lcsd tiEe thoutd bO
lncludrd amon8 those lactoB whlch the Sd'
retsy could coDalder h hahlng htt tot8l
ludBmeat.
VoI.I