Friday, June 10, 2005

GM will build $33 million Milford rollover test center

The firm expects that 100-150 simulations will bring the technology to market much sooner.

By Jeff Plungis / Detroit News Washington Bureau

GM's rollover testing investment • $10 million to add a rollover test facility at Milford Proving Ground • $8 million for data recording equipment • $6 million for crash-test sleds • $6 million for high-speed cameras • $3 million for new dummies • Between 14 and 16 engineers and technicians will be hired Source: General Motors Comment on this story Send this story to a friend Get Home Delivery

WASHINGTON -- General Motors Corp. will invest $33 million to build a new rollover testing center to help bring new safety technologies to market sooner.

The facility will be an add-on to GM's Milford Proving Ground in western Oakland County, the company said Thursday.

Along with a $10 million, 40,000 square-feet building, GM will invest in new crash-test dummies, computer equipment, test sleds and high-speed cameras. As many as 16 salaried engineers and technicians will be added.

GM expects to conduct between 100 and 150 rollover crash tests a year in the new facility. GM currently performs rollover tests -- which focus on fine-tuning the senors that trigger rollover air bags and electronic stability control -- at a supplier facility in the Detroit area.

Rollover crashes are a growing public health concern. More than 200,000 people are injured and 10,000 killed in rollover crashes on U.S. highways each year, representing about one in every three vehicle-related fatalities.

GM hopes to expand on recent technology announcements aimed at reducing rollover deaths and injuries. By next year, four GM SUVs will have optional side-curtain air bags that inflate longer during a rollover: the Saturn VUE, Cadillac SRX, Chevrolet TrailBlazer/GMC Envoy, and the Hummer H3.

"Rollovers are vexing problems," said Robert Lange, GM's executive director of vehicle structure and safety integration. "We don't yet have all the analytical tools we need to understand it."

GM has said previously that all of its trucks and SUVs will have the rollover bags as an option by 2010. The company is also making its electronic stability control system, known as StabiliTrak, standard on all non-commercial cars and trucks by the end of the decade.

A recent National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study said stability control could reduce the likelihood of a single-vehicle crash by up to 67 percent.

Russ Rader, spokesman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, said GM's announcement shows that automakers are continuing to emphasize new anti-rollover safety technologies.

"It's a welcome development," Rader said.

You can reach Jeff Plungis at (202) 906-8204 or jplungis@detnews.com.