NHTSA Drops Auto-Reverse on Power Windows

Back in October 2009, an organization called KidsAndCars held a press conference through which it hoped would impress government authorities to react. The topic of that conference was the danger we all like to call power windows, a comfort feature present in most of today's cars, one which, KidsAndCars said, is responsible for hurting millions of Americans and even killing some.

The logic behind it all is simple: once you press the “up” button on the side of the door or where ever, there is no stopping the glass from going all the way, regardless of the obstacles in its path: fingers, arms or, perhaps worse, the head of a small child.

Back then, KidsAndCars was fighting for the introduction of a so-called automatic reversing windows (ARS) system on all cars. As it usually does, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) took notice and began investigating the problem.

Now, some good months after that moment, the results are in: the NHTSA says that there are few fatalities or serious injuries that safety requirements other than the ones in place today could prevent, so there will be no such mandatory system implemented. At least, not in the near future.

In the view of the safety watchdog, ARS “would instead address primarily ‘finger-pinch’ type injuries.”

The decision appears to be backed by the way in which auto makers currently fit the system into the cars, complete with switches that need to be pulled up, instead of pressed down, to make the window close.