After the Bridgestone/Firestone tire debacle rolls off the front page, consumers still will be driving vehicles that, as a class, have a much higher involvement in rollovers than ordinary cars. As the recent marathon congressional hearings underscored, when a tire fails, the consequences on a sport utility vehicle (SUV) are far worse than on a sedan.

The last really big tire recall, in 1978, involved Firestone 500 passenger-car tires. It was reported that about 14,000 complaints and 41 deaths were linked to failures among 14.5 million tires. In the current recall of Firestone tires, most on Ford Explorer SUVs, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has received far fewer complaints about roughly the same number of tires -- about 2,000 complaints of failures in a universe of about 14.4 million tires -- but it is investigating more than 100 deaths associated with those tire failures.

These two recalls demonstrate that a tire failure on an SUV can be much more devastating than a failure on a sedan. The higher center of gravity of an SUV is a major factor.

Even with all four tires intact, SUVs present consumers with a substantially higher risk from rollover. NHTSA figures show that 45% of fatalities in single-car crashes involve rollover. For SUVs, that number jumps to 79%.

Although SUVs have had high rollover death rates for more than a decade, the best NHTSA had to offer was a warning sticker on certain SUVs telling consumers to avoid making sharp turns, lest the vehicle roll over or crash. But safer vehicles, not stickers, are what consumers needed.

Change of plans

In 1988, NHTSA agreed to develop a federal rollover standard for all vehicles. It gave up a few years later, saying that would force significant SUV redesign costs. In 1997, it agreed to develop a performance test that would evaluate all SUVs' emergency-handling capabilities and to make the results public.

But after three years of promising research on such a test, the agency suddenly switched direction. Now it proposes a less-costly but lifeless index based on a vehicle's track width and center-of-gravity height. Because it ignores many factors that critically affect vehicle behavior, this index does not adequately measure a vehicle's stability in emergencies. For example, it takes no account of tire performance, even though Ford reportedly draws a connection between tire pressure and the rollover stability of its Explorer. NHTSA's index also would give identical ratings to SUV models that have shown vast differences in performance tests.

NHTSA's switch to a less-useful measure leaves consumers ill-equipped to make rational choices for buying safer SUVs -- unless Congress takes action quickly.

A fistful of problems

For starters, the nation's auto-safety regulator has too few staff, weak leadership, insufficient resources, a lethargic injury-data collection system and an unwillingness to take risks to protect consumers. As a result, it's not taken seriously by the auto industry.

Only Congress can set NHTSA on a course that puts consumer safety first. It must give the agency:

* authority to gather injury data from all sources;
* power to seek criminal sanctions against corporate officials who withhold key safety information;
* resources to handle its massive responsibility;
* clear and firm direction that its job is to enforce auto safety laws vigorously on behalf of consumers and without interference from special interests.

The deaths linked to this latest tire recall underscore that fixing the tire standard is a must. But so is setting up a federal rating system that gives consumers reliable information to compare the stability and handling of SUVs in emergencies. Consumers want such a system, and it would pressure manufacturers to design safer vehicles. Congress should tell NHTSA to finish the job it started three years ago.

R. David Pittle, a former commissioner of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, is senior vice president and technical director at Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports

The op-ed can also be found at a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/comment/ncguest1.htm.">http://www.usatoday.com/news/comment/ncguest1.htm.