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Slater Announces Standard to Require Internal Trunk Releases on Cars

18 October 2000

U.S. Transportation Secretary Slater Announces Standard to Require Internal Trunk Releases on Cars

    WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 U.S. Transportation Secretary Rodney
E. Slater today announced a requirement that all passenger cars with trunks
have a release or other automatic system inside to allow children or adults to
escape.  The requirement is effective Sept. 1, 2001.
    "This requirement will help save the lives of children who get trapped in
car trunks," Secretary Slater said. "There have been too many deaths of
children caught in trunks in hot weather with no way out -- this will provide
them a means of escape."
    Trunk entrapment involves both children trapped in trunks -- often during
play, pranks or other innocent circumstances -- and adults trapped in trunks -
- generally as a result of criminal actions.
    "This proposal will give children and others a chance to get out of the
trunk alive," said National Highway Traffic Safety Administrator Dr. Sue
Bailey.
    In the summer of 1998, 11 children died from exposure to heat after being
inadvertently trapped in car trunks. A study released that year by the Centers
for Disease Control documented a total of 19 cases of children ages 6 and
under who died in car trunks between 1987 and 1998.
    The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) new standard
adopts the approach recommended by an expert panel NHTSA established in
November 1998. The Expert Panel on Trunk Entrapment that Dr. Heather Paul of
the Safe Kids Campaign chaired included experts on child psychology and
behavior, safety advocacy, automotive engineering, vehicle manufacturing, law
enforcement, the medical community and other groups.
    The final rule establishes a new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard
(FMVSS) No. 401, Internal Trunk Release.