Buzz Off

Future historians who study the congressional debates of 1974 will be amazed by the fury aroused in the American people by loud buzzing sounds. Responding to constituent pressure, the House last week completed congressional approval of a bill that will eliminate the interlock seat-belt system that prevented motorists from starting their cars unless seat belts were fastened --and that emitted a persistent and sometimes angry buzz as a reminder.

President Ford is expected to sign the bill; soon after he does, manufacturers will stop making the systems, and motorists can legally have them disconnected. As a replacement, the legislation suggests that the government develop regulations for a three-point lap-and shoulder-belt system that can mildly chide nonusers by lighting a dashboard warning signal and sounding a one-shot buzz for a mere eight seconds--but that will not prevent any driver from starting the engine or unbuckling en route.

Bag Debate. The change marks the first rollback of an auto-safety standard since the safety movement began gathering velocity in 1966. But safety advocates are just as concerned by another provision of the bill that restricts the authority of the Department of Transportation to require use of air bags. The air bags are designed to inflate on impact to protect front-seat riders from injury, then deflate in seconds. The Transportation Department has planned to make air bags mandatory in 1977 model cars, but the new bill provides that it must first hold public hearings and then send the regulations to the House and Senate, where they could be vetoed by a majority vote of both houses within 60 consecutive legislative days.

Still, air-bag advocates managed to keep Congress from flatly forbidding mandatory use of the device, as the House once voted to do (TIME, Sept. 2, 1974). Safety enthusiasts insist that the bags will save many lives; automakers regard them as unproven and worry about driver lawsuits if a bag fails to inflate during a collision--or inflates when there is no crash. Both agree that the bags will not be widely used unless they are mandatory; if they are offered only as optional equipment, few drivers will pay to have them installed.

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