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Progress on backover rule, but not done yet

By Scott Michelman, Public Citizen Litigation Group.

Cross-posted from Consumer Law & Policy Blog.

In September, a group of auto safety advocates and parents represented by Public Citizen sued the Department of Transportation over its failure to issue a congressionally-mandated regulation to address the problem of backover crashes, that is, collisions in which a vehicle moving backwards strikes a person (or object) behind the vehicle. Each year on average, according to the Department of Transportation (DOT), backovers kill 292 people and injure 18,000 more — most of whom are children under the age of five, senior citizens over the age of seventy-five, or persons with disabilities.

In November, the court ordered DOT to respond to our petition, which it did two weeks ago. DOT also did something else that the court had not ordered: as the Detroit News reported yesterday, DOT sent a proposed final rule back to the Office of Management and Budget for final review (a step required by executive order before a rule is issued). This means that the regulatory process is moving again, and sooner than expected — six months after DOT withdrew the rule from OMB, now it’s back, and that’s not a very long time to overhaul the proposal (but, to be clear, we don’t know what rule the agency is now proposing). We’re pleased the administration appears to be moving forward in response to our lawsuit.

But before getting too excited, remember that we’ve reached this stage before — DOT sent a proposed rule to OMB back in November 2011, only to have it languish for 19 months before being withdrawn. So progress is not enough: we need the administration to finish the job.

Meanwhile, our lawsuit is still pending. If the administration doesn’t follow through and issue the final rule this time, hopefully the court will order it to do so.