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DaimlerChrysler officials strongly disputed that the 11 tests performed on dummies representing short women indicated they could be seriously injured by the passenger-side air bags. Company engineers said the air bags in the tests were catching between the dummy's head and neck in a cavity real people do not have, causing false high readings. Officials at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Tuesday they experimented with four types of dummy necks, working to fill the space between the head and neck with protective wrappings. Although the air bags appeared to catch in the crack between the head and neck of dummies in some tests, six of the 11 tests indicated the air bags were generally exerting strong force on a variety of dummy neck types, government officials said. The forces registered on the neck during the six tests indicated a high probability of serious injury or death, officials said. Consumer advocacy groups urged the safety agency to force DaimlerChrysler to recall the more than 2 million minivans the company has built since 1994 and replace the air bags with less forceful ones. Most of those minivans were built before Chrysler Corp.'s acquisition last year by Germany's Daimler-Benz. NHTSA officials have not started the formal investigative process required of the minivans, or any other vehicle, before they would request any recall. Susan Cischke, DaimlerChrysler's vice president in charge of safety, said company engineers believe the air bags were getting caught between the dummy's head and neck in all six of the tests where the neck injury levels were high. | ||
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