Dangerous Power Windows in American Cars, Pickup Trucks and SUVs

Cars manufactured and sold in the U.S. generally lack safety features that cause power windows to retract automatically when they encounter an obstruction. Until 2010, U.S. federal standards also allowed vehicles to be sold with power window rocker and toggle switches, which can be unintentionally activated by a child.

The lack of power window safety devices in U.S. vehicles results in children dying needlessly each year by suffocating when their heads and necks are caught in power windows.

A Nationwide Problem

Currently, the U.S. does not have a comprehensive database to track power window injuries or deaths. However, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has conducted studies which show that an average of six children aged fourteen and younger are killed each year in power window accidents, and that approximately 1,943 people are injured each year in power window accidents.

A study by the National Center for Statistics and Analysis estimated that 500 people annually are treated in hospital emergency rooms for injuries related to power windows.

The Problem Explained and Safer Alternatives

Cars sold in Europe have safety features that cause power windows to retract, similarly to elevator doors, when they encounter an obstruction. This auto-reverse mechanism engages when the window hits any object, and can save a child’s life by causing the window to retract when the child’s head, neck or torso is in the path of the window.

American vehicles are not equipped with this auto-reverse safety device, and as a result, children die when they are caught in the path of an ascending power window. Electric windows rise with much greater force than is commonly understood.

Furthermore, until October 2010, U.S. federal standards allowed rocker and toggle switches for power windows. A rocker switch moves the window upward when you press one end of the switch, and down when you press on the other end. A toggle switch works when pushed forward and pulled back. Both can be inadvertently activated by a child playing.

Safety advocates maintain that pull-up, push-down switches, also called lever switches, which must be lifted up to raise the window, are safer. Children are less likely to unintentionally activate lever switches when their head is in the window.

Advocacy Efforts to Halt Child Deaths from Power Windows

In 2008, the Cameron Gulbransen Kids Transportation Safety Act was signed into law. The Act directed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to initiate rulemaking on the need for motor vehicle power windows to be designed with automatic reversing systems (ARS) technology. In 2009, the NHTSA studied power window accident data and deemed ARS technology unnecessary.

Kids and Cars contests this decision and claims the NHTSA used “extremely flawed data.” 

As of October 2010, all cars sold in the U.S. are required to have lever switches instead of rocker or toggle swtiches. However, based on the NHTSA’s 2009 ARS recommendation, federal standards do not require vehicles to be equipped with automatic reversal technology.

Until all auto manufacturers agree to make safety improvements to new vehicles and ones on the road, it is only through the filing of lawsuits by the families of victims that change will occur.

Contact Lieff Cabraser

Parents whose children have been injured or killed in power windows accidents should complete our contact form to contact a Lieff Cabraser lawyer for a free, no-obligation review of your case. Alternatively, you may call Lieff Cabraser partner Fabrice N. Vincent toll-free at 1-800-541-7358.