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In 1963, he was chief designer for Holman
& Moody, Inc., of Charlotte, N.C. In 1964.
he formed Cumberford Design International,
a consulting firm with offices in New York
City, Mexico City, And
England.
Northampton,

Among the many operating cars which Mr.
Cumberford has designed are the Cadillac
Eldorado Brougham town car, alx models of
Chevrolet Corvette, the antirical Rond &
Track Cyclops II. a prototype world-market
car for a Japanese firm, a Mustang station
wagon and the recently introduced Grimth/
Plymouth-powered sports car. He is cur-
rently working on a safety car which is based
on normal industry techniques.

TIIOMAS M. O'BRIEN, CHIEF DESIGN ENGINEER
Academic background

Mr. O'Brien studied mechanical engineering and engineering physics at Lehigh University from 1950 to 1954.

Professional experience

From 1954 to 1956 Mr. O'Brien was a test engineer on the new devices test staff of Celco Corp. at Mahwah, NJ. His work was centered on developments in magnetic amplifiers and other electronic and electro-mechanical components.

From 1956 to 1959, he served as project engineer for Electro-Tec Corp. of Ormond Beach, Fla. Work responsibilities included design of switches and sliprings for missiles and aircraft.

In 1959, as an outgrowth of his hobby of sports car racing, he formed his own company specializing in the preparation of highperformance automobiles. In 1963 this company became a franchised dealership for AlfaRomeo automobiles.

He has been recognized as a driver by Ferrari and Alfa-Romeo. having driven for both firms in international competition. He won the U.S. national championship (class D-modified) for Ferrari in 1964.

In 1963, Mr. O'Brien formed the Duralite Safety Equipment Corp. to manufacture and distribute roll bars, high-strength seat belt mountings, and other items intended to improve the safety characteristics of production

cars.

Mr. O'Brien helped organize ADA in 1965. He is chief design engineer and manager of the fabrication facility and structural model laboratory.

Mr. RIBICOFF. Mr. President, there are few bills considered by this body whose enactments will directly and immediately save lives. This is one of them. For this reason, I strongly support its passage.

Tire failure causes traffic accidents. This is so fundamental it hardly needs to be stated. The National Safety Council estimates that 7 percent of all traffic accidents are caused by faulty tires. But it is on the Nation's high-speed turnpikes that faulty tires take the most tragic toll. A 1962 New York Thruway study ranked tire failure as the most common cause of all vehicle-caused accidents. Ohio attributes 10 percent of all turnpike accidents to tire failure, New Jersey reports a figure of 9.2 percent. Officials of the Indiana and Pennsylvania Turnpikes say tire failure is second only to driver fatigue as a cause of accidents. It is obvious, then, that tire failure is a significant cause of accidents and that improved and modernized safety standards are necessary if we are to hold accidents caused by tire failure to a minimum.

We now have variation in both tire quality and in the minimum standards which each individual manufacturer sets

for himself in the production of his tires. We are lacking the standards which are necessary to achieve greater uniformity in the tires produced by different manufacturers. We do not have the standards which will assure greater safety to the public which uses tires to travel our roads today.

What we need now is a system of minimum safety standards to give the consumer protection against inferior, weak. or defective tires. Up to now, the buyer has had no means of determining whether the tire he purchases is safe for his type of driving. Tires carry a variety of designations-"super quiet delux," "super safety special," or "nylon delux" and others-but it is impossible for consumers to tell which one is the better quality tire. Today's tire-buying is strictly a game of blindman's buff.

The essential first step in tire safety must be the establishment of standards for tire performance so that no new or used tire can be sold which does not meet minimum criteria of safety. There are 87 million cars on the road today. Allowing unsafe tires to be used as original equipment or sold to the public is like giving a loaded gun to an unsuspecting person. And let me emphasize that the automaker in Detroit has as great & responsibility as the tiremaker in Akron. Fifty-million tires are sold as original equipment. They are ordered by the automaker. He must be sure his standards are high. Let us not point

the finger only at the tire industry. Detroit also is to blame for the present state of affairs.

What we need plainly and simply is a system for grading and labeling tires. This is essential in order that the tire consumer has the opportunity to choose what he wants on the basis of valid and effective information and in giving him a way of knowing that he is receiving what he has actually paid for. Without a system of grading and labeling, the consumer has no way of knowing that he is receiving what he thinks he has bought. At present he has no way of telling one tire grade from another. The free enterprise system works best when the buyer has complete and accurate information on the product. Then he can make an informed judgment and select the tire best suited to his individual needs.

This bill makes a start toward greater
tire safety. It provides for the establish-
ment by the Secretary of Commerce of
interim minimum safe
standards for new tires by January 31,
performance
1967, and the setting of final standards
for new and newly retreaded tires by
January 31, 1969. A valuable feature of
the bill would prescribe the maximum
permissible load for each tire size.
bill also authorizes the Secretary to re-
quire that tires be "permanently and
conspicuously labeled for such safety in-
formation as he determines to be neces-
sary to achieve the purposes of the act."
I hope the Secretary will liberally inter-
pret this clause so as to promote maxi-
mum disclosure to the public of all
relevant safety information.

The

Although the bill only calls for a study of the feasibility of a uniform quality grading system for tires, in my view, it

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is imperative that we adopt such a system. I hope the Secretary makes every effort to bring us a favorable report on this subject before January 31, 1969. Mr. President, last year nearly 50,000 people were killed in more than 12 milllon tramc accidents. Property damage amounted to more than $8.5 billion. This bill will help reduce that terrible toll by upgrading the quality of tires.

I commend the chairman of the Commerce Committee, the Senator from Washington [Mr. MAGNUSON] for bringing this bill before the Senate-and I think the Nation owes a debt of gratitude also to the distinguished Senator from Wisconsin [Mr. NELSON], whose long and devoted service to the cause of safer tires and safer cars has contributed so much to the legislation we are considering today.

I urge the speedy enactment of 8. 2669. Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. clerk will call the roll.

The

The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.

Mr. HARTKE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

Mr. HARTKE. Mr. President, as chairman of the hearings conducted by the Commerce Committee concerning tire safety, I am in support of the passage of this bill.

In 3 days of hearings last year, held on May 25, June 7, and August 13, we had before us witnesses from tiremakers, auto manufacturers, retreaders, vehicle safety groups, Federal agencies, and a wide range of interested persons directly concerned with the problem. If any one thing became clear in the course of the hearings, it was that the confusion in the matter of tire standards is even greater than it might have seemed at the beginning of the hearings.

The nomenclature in the descriptive terms applied to tires offered for sale is highly confusing to the customer. One brand calling itself a firstline tire may be no better than another labeled as a second- or even third-line tire. What is a "two-ply four-ply rated" tire? Is it as good as a straight four-ply tire? Or is it even better?

Are auto manufacturers installing tires adequate for the use that can be expected of them in these days of the loaded vacationing family's car rolling down an interstate highway at 65 or 70 miles an hour in hot weather? How safe are retreaded tires and can adequate standards be set so that there will be no unsafe tires entering the market? How many accidents are caused by tire failure?

These are some of the questions with which we were concerned, and as we got into the subject further and listened to the technical discussions of tire engineers, we sometimes felt were compounding confusion as much as we were creating enlightenment.

Certainly, when experts from the manufacturers of tires and their associations are so widely at variance in their views with those of safety experts as appeared

in some cases, the need for objective and well-tested standards is obvious.

This is not a harsh bill. It is a first step toward bringing order out of chaos. It is a bill which gives adequate time for compliance with standards, and adequate time for the development first of interim standards and then of more permanent standards as testing and standard-setting proceeds.

Too often unsuspecting families have had experiences such as that reported in the Hammond, Ind., Times, of June 16, 1965, an incident which occurred after the first two of our three hearings had been held. A front page three-column picture shows a tire whose tread came apart in the middle and separated from the casing around the entire circumference while a family was driving in its 3-month-old station wagon at 60 miles an hour.

The owner of the car was driving with his wife and three children at the time. He was quoted as saying:

That car swerved all over the road. It scared the life out of my wife and kids. I think the only things that saved us were the power steering and because there were no other cars coming.

This tire, which "unzipped" after only 5,000 miles, is typical of all too many such incidents which came to our attention during these hearings.

A few days later the same paper carried an editorial which concluded with these words:

American motorists should not be compelled to play Russian roulette with the lives of themselves and their families because manufacturers are allowed to make tires that are unsafe.

The problems of traffic safety are interrelated. We are, through the Interstate System, eliminating some of the causes of accidents which lie in highway engineering. I believe we should do more, and I have introduced bills for extending the system and for greater attention to spot improvements of unsafe and easily remedied conditions on roads which do not come up to interstate standards.

This week the Commerce Committee begins hearings on the traffic safety bills which we have before us, including S. 2871, the Hartke-Mackay bill, in which I have been joined by 14 cosponsors. This involves a whole range of safety measures, including automotive design and uniformity of traffic controls.

I hope we may continue and expand the efforts to which this tire safety bill is an introduction. Too long we have seen apathy on the part of the public, and even apathy on the part of the Congress, which, having the power through jurisdiction over interstate commerce, has until now failed to take strong measures to save lives and property on the highways to the extent that we are able.

This is a beginning. Let us make that beginning, and then get on to further substantial progress to eliminate the specter that haunts the highways, murder by motor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum,
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The

clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call
the roll.

Mr. YARBOROUGH. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

Mr. President, are Mr. MANSFIELD. there further amendments to be proposed?

The The OFFICER. PRESIDING committee amendment, as amended, is If there open to further amendment. be no further amendment to be proposed, the question is on agreeing to the committee amendment in the nature of a substitute, as amended.

The committee amendment in the nature of a substitute, as amended, was agreed to.

Mr. MANSFIELD. Mr. President, I ask for the third reading of the bill.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on the third reading of the bill.

The bill was read the third time.

Mr. MANSFIELD. Mr. President, on the question of the passage of the bill, I ask for the "yeas" and "nays."

The "yeas" and "nays" were ordered. Mr. MANSFIELD. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

The

PRESIDING

OFFICER.

The

clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call
the roll.

Mr. MANSFIELD. Mr. President. I
ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. out objection, it is so ordered.

With

6924 SAFETY STANDARDS FOR MOTOR

VEHICLE TIRES

The Senate resumed the consideration of the bill (8. 2669) to establish safety standards for motor vehicle tires sold or shipped in interstate commerce, and for other purposes.

Mr. METCALF. Mr. President, today there are tubeless tires on automobile wheels having drop center rims. From time to time plugs are placed in the tires and sometimes tubes are inserted.

I am informed that a very serious and dangerous situation occurs if one inserts a tube in a tubeless tire. In the event of a puncture, the drop center rim would create the same problem as would a blowout.

Would this measure take care of such a situation?

Mr. MAGNUSON. Mr. President, the pending legislation is mainly directed at the sale of new tires and retreads.

The Secretary of Commerce would set these minimum safety performance standards. I am sure that the standards would include a prohibition on the sale of such tires as the Senator mentions. However, if somebody bought a tubeless tire and then purchased a tube and placed the tube in the tubeless tire, that situation would not be covered by this bill.

Every State has laws that require drivers not to proceed upon the highway with defective automobiles. I suppose that a highway patrolman in Montana

could say to the Senator from Montana,
if he were to take the steering wheel off
his automobile and use some other steer-
ing device, that it was unsafe and that
he could not drive the car in that con-
dition.

States could prohibit someone from
using on the highways tubeless tires with
tubes inserted.

2 That would be

largely & Bente matter.
Mr. MAGNUSON. The Senator is
correct. The Secretary of Commerce
could make recommendations to the
States that they prohibit such a prac-
tice on the ground that it would not
accord with the so-called minimum
standards.

Mr. METCALF. I hope that, when the
bill is passed, some investigation might
be made along that line.

Mr. MAGNUSON. If anyone were to sell a tubeless tire, whether it be secondhand or new or retread, with a tube in the tire, the minimum standards would cover that situation and the man would be liable for violating the law.

Mr. METCALF. I thank the Senator
from Washington.

OFFICER. The
The PRESIDING
hour of 2 o'clock having arrived, and
the bill having been read the third time,
the question is, "Shall the bill pass?"

On this question the yeas and nays
have been ordered, and the clerk will
call the roll.

The legislative clerk called the roll. Mr. MANSFIELD. I announce that the Senator from Connecticut (Mr. DODD], the Senator from Tennessee [Mr. GORE), the Senator from Arizona [Mr. HAYDEN], the Senator from Hawaii [Mr. INOUYE), the Senator from Louisiana [Mr. LONG), the Senator from Wyoming [Mr. McGEE), the Senator from Oregon [Mrs. NEUBERGER), are absent on official business.

I also announce that the Senator from Mississippi [Mr. EASTLAND), the Senator from Minnesota [Mr. McCARTHY), the Senator from New Hampshire [Mr. McINTYRE), the Senator from Michigan [Mr. MCNAMARA], the Senator from Rhode Island (Mr. PELL), and the Senator from South Carolina [Mr. RUSSELL] are necessarily absent.

I further announce that the Senator from Florida [Mr. HOLLAND), is necessarily absent because of the serious illness of his brother.

I further announce that, if present and voting, the Senator from Connecticut [Mr. DODD), the Senator from Mississip❤ pl (Mr. EASTLAND), the Senator from Tennessee [Mr. GORE], the Senator from Arizona (Mr. HAYDEN), the Senator from Florida (Mr. HOLLAND), the Senator from Hawaii (Mr. INOUYE), the Senator from Louisiana (Mr. LONG), the Senator from Minnesota (Mr. McCARTHY), the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. McG), the Senator from New Hampshire [Mr. McETYRE), the the Senator from Oregon (Mrs. NEUBERoma), the Senator from Rhode Island (Mr. PELL), and the Senstor from South Carolina (Mr. RUSSELL}, would each vote "yea."

! Mr. DIRKSEN. I announce that the Benator from Colorado (Mr. ALLOTT), the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. COOPER),

6925

703

Senator from Arizona (Mr. FANNIN}, Senator from California [Mr. Y), and the Senator from DelaLMT. WILLIAMS] are necessarily.

Senator from New York

absent on official, busin Senator from California. x} is absent because of ilineda. If present and voting, the Senator from Colorado [Mr. ALLOTT), the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. COOPER), the Senator from Arizona [Mr. FANNIN), the Senator from New York (Mr. JAVITS), the Senator from California (Mr. KuсHEL), the Senator from California (Mr. MURPHY), and the Senator from Delaware [Mr. WILLIAMS] would each vote "yea,"

The result was announced-yeas 79, nays 0, as follows:

Aiken

Anderson

Bartlett

Bass

[No. 60 Leg.1

YEAS-79

Harris

Nelson

Pastore Pearson

Hart

Hartke

Hickenlooper

Prouty

Bayh

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Proxmire

Bennett

Hruska

Bible

Jackson

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Jordan, N.C.
Jordan, Idaho
Kennedy, Mass.
Kennedy, N.Y.
Lausche
Long, Mo.
Magnuson

Alansfield

McClellan

McGovern

Metcalf
Miller
Monda

Montones

Montoya

Morse

Douglas Ellender

Ervin

Morton

Fong

Moss

Fulbright

Mundt

Gruening

Muskie

NAYS O

Randolph
Ribicon
Robertson
Russell, On.
S. ltonstall
Scott
Simpson
Smathers

Smith

Sparkman
Stennh

Symington

Talmadge Thurmond Tower Tydings Williams, N.J. Yarborough Young. N. Dak.

Young, Ohio

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So the bill (S. 2669) was passed.

Mr. MANSFIELD. Mr. President, the distinguished senior Senator from Washington (Mr. MAGNUSON] is to be commended for his highly capable handling of the tire safety measure. Its passage was unanimous.

No greater tribute can be given to the floor manager of the bill than unanimous endorsement by the Senate. Success of such magnitude, however, is typical of legislation supported by the able and astute chairman of the Commerce Committee. His countless triumphs in this body alone speak highly for his deep and abiding devotion to the people. We congratulate him for another triumph today and we are grateful.

Additionally, we thank the distinguished junior Senator from Wisconsin (Mr. NELSON) and the senior Senator from Indiana (Mr. HARTER) for their splendid contributions, and also the Junior Senator from Connecticut [Mr. The RIBICOFF] for his assistance. articulate support of these Senators helped greatly to assure the overwhelming success of this measure. And to the Senate as a whole I express my gratitude for swift and orderly action.

Allott

Cooper

Inouye

Dodd

Javits

Eastland

Kuchel

Pannin

Gore

Long, La. McCarthy

Hayden

McGee

McNamara

Murphy
Neuberger

Pell
Russell, 8.C.
Williams, Del.

Vol. I

House Amendments List

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