MOVES COULD BE COSTLY

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32797, 23 December 1971, Page 9

MOVES COULD BE COSTLY

If the proposed 1975 United States safety and exhaust emission standards were applied in Britain, they would add £3OO to £4OO to the price of a car now costing £lOOO, and also materially increase running costs, Lord Rootes, the chairman of Chrysler, United Kingdom, and president of the Motor Industry Research Association has said. “Some extra costs must, of course, be accepted in the development of improved products. However, while there is a constant need to seek ways of reducing road accidents and improving vehicle safety standards, the case for the universal application of the same kind of rigorous standards for exhaust emissions is less soundly based,” Lord Rootes said. "The British motor industry has made it clear that it would support the adoption of Economic Commission for Europe recommendations in relation to emissions of carbon monoxide and unbumt hydrocarbons as a legal requirement in Britain. “One of the exhaust Cdnstitutents which is a matter of public debate is lead compounds. “But there is no evidence that oxides of nitrogen or lead from motor exhausts are a danger to health in this country. The greatest proportion of lead ingested

into the body comes, in fact, from food and drink. “There is also evidence that the reduction of lead .as an exhaust pollutant would, create other emissions Which might be more hazardous, which aspect needs the closest possible investigation. "Society seems to have moved from an attitude of' extreme complacency about the impact of economic growth and development on the environment to one of near panic, in which there are now great emotional and political pressures for instant, drastic action, often without sufficient evidence that the remedy proposed is the right solution. Nowhere is this more true than in the case of the motor-vehicle. “In this kind of atmosphere, it is easy to forget that, besides the economic benefits which the motorvehicle industry brings to many countries, the car itself provides several basic social benefits. It gives a growing number of people To develop restraints Britain’s Department of the Environment and the Auto Restraints Systems company have agreed to cooperate in a $400,000 project to develop a “crashdeployed” passenger restraint system for cars a restraint system which is activated by a collision. The two organisations are already developing self- applying seat-belt systems fof cars.

a personal freedom they could not otherwise enjoy, a freedom which is a liberating influence, allowing people to widen their social contact and enabling them to enrich their lives through a broadening of experience. “Similarly, when people attack the growth of commercial vehicle traffic on our roads they forget that this is an essential part of the country’s total economic activity. Over 90 per cent of goods traffic in Britain is carried by road, and there is no satisfactory substitute for this means of

transport for the bulk of the. goods which have to be moved.” Lord Rootes said that it was important to achieve harmonisation of the different international vehicle safety and pollution standards. He said: “The industry hopes that whatever legislation the British Government may introduce, it Will continue the considerable efforts being made to get agreement on common standards, certainly as far as Europe is concerned, particularly with Britain’s impending entry into the Common Market."