The Buick New Regal sedan from Shanghai GM has received a maximum five-star safety rating from the China Automotive Technology and Research Center (CATARC), which recently released its China New Car Assessment Program ratings.

A U.S. version of the Regal will be in Buick showrooms in May.

The New Regal received 49.7 points overall and a maximum score of 16 points in side impact crash tests against a moving deformable barrier. In frontal crash tests it received a score of 15.03 out of 16 points, while in a 40 percent front offset crash test, it scored 15.65 out of 16 points. The New Regal received an additional three points for having a front seat seatbelt alert system, side air bags and side curtain air bags, and the ISOFIX anchoring system for child safety seats.

“We are pleased but not surprised by the results,” said GM China Group President and Managing Director Kevin Wale. “GM has made safety a priority in all of our vehicles built and sold in China. The New Regal’s design and occupant restraint systems are intended to meet all current and anticipated crash safety standards around the world.”

The New Regal has a strong passenger safety cell protected by front and rear crumple zones. Special attention was given to minimizing the risk of intrusion from the engine. For improved side-impact protection, steel door beams are mounted diagonally to help engage the side structure more effectively in spreading crash forces.

A new active head restraint for the front seats was introduced in the New Regal to help reduce the risk of neck injury in a rear-end collision. The front portion of the head restraint is pushed forward 45 millimeters by a new cable linkage, which is sufficient to restrict rearward head movement.

Dual chamber head/thorax air bags are mounted on the outboard sides of the front seatbacks and full-length curtain air bags are installed in the roof. For further passenger protection, three-point seatbelts are provided for all seating positions, including the middle of the rear seat, with pyrotechnic pre-tensioners and load limiters on the front belts.

In addition, tire sensors warn the driver if the pressure in any of the tires drops below the recommended level. Sensors in the valves initiate a radio signal and a warning message is illuminated on the main instrument display.

The Buick New Regal was introduced in China in December 2008. Through the end of March 2010, Shanghai GM had sold 101,773 New Regals nationwide.

LoJack Corp., the Westwood company that specializes in finding and recovering a wide range of mobile assets including motor vehicles and construction equipment, said today that it posted a 90 percent success rate for recovering 11,382 LoJack-equipped stolen vehicles in 2009.

Citing FBI data for 2008, the most recent year for which such data were available, LoJack said that 956,846 vehicles were stolen and that 411,444 were not recovered. That works out to a recovery rate of 57 percent. That recovery rate was 67 percent in 1999, LoJack said in a press release.

A look at LoJack's 2009 data, and a car buyer might want to think twice about buying a black Honda Civic. The Civic was the top model stolen and recovered in 2009, the company said, and the favorite color for thieves last year was black. White and silver were also popular color choices.

A strong snowstorm that cut visibility nearly to zero in some places as it rolled across the Plains on Saturday caused numerous vehicle pileups and forced authorities to close portions of several major highways.

Dozens of vehicles were involved in a pileup on Interstate 29 in western Missouri, authorities said. Sections of some Oklahoma highways were closed because of whiteout conditions.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol said preliminary reports indicated 20 to 40 vehicles, including three tractor-trailer rigs, were involved in the early afternoon chain-reaction wreck on Interstate 29 at St. Joseph.

Multiple ambulances were sent to the scene but there was no immediate indication how many people were injured or if there were any fatalities. Heartland Regional Medical Center in St. Joseph said it was treating several people from the accident though none of the injuries appeared to be life-threatening.

The patrol closed about 100 miles of I-29 from Dearborn, which is between Kansas City and St. Joseph, to the Iowa state line. The storm blew locally heavy snow across Oklahoma, eastern Kansas and northwestern Missouri, plus parts of Nebraska and Iowa.

In Oklahoma, U.S. 412 near Mooreland was closed because 15 to 20 cars had slid off the road or had been involved in collisions, authorities said.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol said a six-car collision on U.S. 64 in the state's northwest corner involved an ambulance that was carrying victims from the scene of another accident. Parts of that highway and others in the Panhandle were closed because of blowing snow and low visibility.

The Kansas Department of Transportation said a 40-mile stretch of I-70 west of Topeka was closed because of a weather-related 30-car pileup. It was not immediately clear how many people were injured or if there were any fatalities in either pileup.

By early afternoon, the storm had dropped 3 inches of snow in the St. Joseph area, said National Weather Service meteorologist Julie Adolphson. Accumulations of up to 7 inches were possible in northwest Missouri and northeast Kansas.

Wind was blowing at sustained speeds of 25 to 35 mph with gusts to 45 mph in Oklahoma, threatening to bring down tree limbs damaged during the severe ice storm early last week that blacked out hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses.

Farther west, Colorado roads remained icy in spots following a storm Friday. Eastbound I-70 was closed about 20 miles east of Denver for more than two hours after a wreck in which five people were injured.

The government would be required to examine a number of auto safety problems such as backovers and other deadly accidents involving children under a bill approved by a House committee today.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee, on a voice vote, passed a bill that would require federal regulators to consider ways of diminishing blind zones in large sport utility vehicles and pickups, prevent vehicles from rolling away and making power windows more safe.

A Senate committee approved similar legislation in May following reports of children being backed over in their driveways.

Safety advocates estimate that about four children die each week in backovers, strangulation from power windows or from being left behind in hot vehicles.

Automakers objected to earlier versions of the bill, arguing that it would require them to install expensive backup cameras in their vehicles to meet the new standards.

Under the compromise, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration would need to require vehicles to expand the rearward field of view to help drivers detect children or objects behind the vehicle.

The enhanced visibility could be accomplished through additional mirrors, sensors, cameras or other technologies. NHTSA would have to issue a final rule within three years of the bill's enactment.

"Nobody should have to back out of the driveway without seeing what's behind them," said Jacqueline Gillan, vice president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety.

On power windows, NHTSA would need to develop new rules to require the windows to automatically reverse direction if there's an obstruction in the way. If the agency decided not to issue final requirements, it would need to explain its decision to Congress.

The bill also puts into law a voluntary agreement approved last year by 19 automakers, who vowed to have brake interlock systems in all new vehicles by 2010.

The European Commission on Monday proposed that all new cars be fitted with an advanced braking system that can detect an emergency and shrink reaction times for slowing the vehicle.

The proposal to install Brake Assist Systems in vehicles beginning in 2009 is part of a set of measures intended to protect pedestrians.

If the new systems are installed, up to 1,100 pedestrian lives per year could be saved, the European Union's executive predicted. The new system, already installed in several models, detects when a driver is in an emergency situation but has failed to apply sufficient brake power.

In such situations, the system releases pressurized brake fluid into the system as soon as the driver touches the brake pedal, reducing stopping times.

"This proposal is good and important for the safety of all road users, especially vulnerable groups like pedestrians and cyclists," said Guenter Verheugen, the EU's industry commissioner.

EU official Reinhard Schulte-Braucks declined to estimate the cost for the industry of installing the system, but told reporters it was "not overly expensive."

Schulte-Braucks, head of the automotive industry unit at EU headquarters, said the costs would be far outweighed by savings caused by fewer injuries and fatalities.

Europe's auto manufactures backed the idea.

"The industry welcomes the proposal and they think it is feasible," said Sigrid de Vries, director of communications for the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association.

However, she said the EU should also focus on better enforcement of road safety laws and improve the conditions of Europe's roads in order to cut accident rates.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel backed her nation's automakers Thursday in a European debate over how to reduce greenhouse emissions as she opened the world's largest motor show in Frankfurt.

"The automobile industry has my support" for its position that different categories of vehicles should be given different targets for carbon dioxide emissions, the German leader said.

European Union officials have proposed an average limit of 120 grams per kilometer over the range of a manufacturers models by 2012, compared with around 160 grams at present.

A draft law on the subject is expected to be presented on December 19.

But German automakers produce a larger number of powerful cars that would make it harder to hit the target than southern European groups in Italy and France.

And the European Association Automobile Manufacturers said Wednesday that the 2012 date was too close in any case owing to long product development cycles in the industry.

Merkel, a former German environment minister, said she was "impressed" by progress made by the auto industry to preserve the environment as she toured some of the giant fair's roughly 1,000 exhibitions.

She stopped by the Peugeot, DaimlerChrysler and Volkswagen stands for a briefing on their newest "green" technologies.

Auto groups from around 40 countries showcased technology aimed at lowering fuel consumption and cutting carbon dioxide emissions.

But activists from the environmental group Greenpeace nonetheless staged a protest as the fair opened to the public, denouncing auto pollution by painting three cars pink and adding pigs' noses, ears and tails to them.

"Manufacturers have resorted to all sorts of tricks to transform the show into a green week," the group's auto specialist Wolfgang Lohbeck claimed as he stood before the sprawling Frankfurt fair grounds.

The German chancellor also spoke out on plagiarism after the German group BMW accused Chinese automaker Shuanghuan of copying the now discontinued X5 sports utility vehicle.

"Common rules" were needed for all, said Merkel, who had already addressed trade issues during a recent visit to China.

"Success is only possible with respect for innovation and if intellectual property is protected," she added.

The fair, Merkel had said earlier, was a "mirror of the German automobile industry's capacity for innovation."

The show will be open until September 23, with an expected 900,000 visitors set to discover 260 new exhibits, including 128 by automakers and 88 world premiers.

The government on Wednesday signed an agreement with China that will improve information sharing on auto safety following last summer's recall of thousands of defective Chinese-made tires.

The "memorandum of understanding" signed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and China's National Reform and Development Commission will "strengthen cooperation and communication" on several motor vehicle regulation and safety issues.

In June, NHTSA ordered a U.S. importer, Foreign Tire Sales Inc., to recall as many as 450,000 tires it had bought from Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co.

The Union, N.J.-based importer initially said it did not have the financial resources to conduct a full recall, but then announced in August that it would recall 255,000 tires.

The recall involved steel-belted radial replacement tires for pickups, vans and sport utility vehicles that consumers bought from early 2004 through mid-2006. The tires were recalled because they lacked a safety feature that prevents tread separation.

NHTSA Administrator Nicole Nason said "if we see a situation in the future where we need information from a Chinese manufacturer like we had with FTS ... we can go straight to the Chinese government and ask them to reach out to the manufacturer."

Nason said given the interest expressed by Chinese automakers to sell vehicles in the U.S. in the future, "we think it's valuable to have this agreement in place now."

The agreement outlines cooperation between the two countries on developing technical regulations, issuing consumer information, enforcing safety-related defects and reviewing the safety attributes of new vehicles.

Chinese auto safety officials were meeting with NHTSA staff this week to share information on regulations involving fuel economy, crash testing and the regulation of tires and vehicles.

The agreement comes amid questions about the quality of Chinese toys, food and other products after a string of product recalls and import bans in recent months.

Federal officials next month will finally unveil one of the last major auto safety regulations in the works -- a requirement that automakers install side air bags by the early part of the next decade.

A government Web site said the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration regulation has been cleared by the Office of Management and Budget and was set to be released by Sept. 28. NHTSA chief Nicole Nason confirmed in a recent interview that new side-impact crash standards would be released next month.

Side-impact crashes are the second most common fatal type after frontal crashes, killing 9,200 people in 2005. The percentage of fatalities caused by side-impact crashes is on the rise -- from 31 percent in 1980-81 to 49 percent in 2004-05.

That's at least partly because frontal air bags are required in today's vehicles (and have reduced frontal-crash fatalities), and side air bags are not, said Adrian Lund, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Also, Lund said, "growing sales of SUVs and pickups have exacerbated height mismatches among passenger vehicles, thereby increasing the risks to occupants of many vehicles struck in the side."

The new rule, Lund said, is "going to force automakers to have side air bags cover more area."

As part of the new side-impact crash regulation, automakers also are expected to make engineering changes to the side of a car or truck, including stronger roof rails, rocker panels and "B pillars" to absorb more crash energy.

In 2003, automakers voluntarily agreed to install side air bags in all vehicles by Sept. 1, 2009, and in 50 percent of vehicles by Sept. 1, 2007.

Automakers want the final rule to allow them to continue with that agreement, said Charles Territo, a spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade group representing the Detroit Three, Toyota and other automakers.

They also "want to ensure that sound science and the advances that have been made are considered," whatever final side-impact crash test is used, Territo said.

"It's an important issue the industry took head on -- or side-on."

Automakers filed a number of objections in 2004 when NHTSA first proposed a side-impact crash standard. The industry asked that convertibles be exempted, and that NHTSA reduce the number of required crash tests.

The automakers also questioned NHTSA estimates of how much the regulation would cost them.

At the time, NHTSA said the new rule would cost automakers $208 per vehicle, or between $1.6 billion to $3.6 billion annually.

NHTSA twice met with the automakers' alliance in 2005 to discuss the concerns.

It is not clear if the final regulation will address any of those issues.

Congress first ordered NHTSA to look at side impact crashes in 1996. Nason's predecessor, Dr. Jeffrey Runge, has criticized NHTSA's long delay in issuing a final rule.

In an interview with The Detroit News in September 2006, Runge urged NHTSA to finalize side impact standards that could save 1,000 lives annually, and to complete a long-delayed rule to improve vehicle roof strength.

At least seven people were killed when an interstate bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota, collapsed Wednesday evening, in what the governor called a "catastrophe of historic proportions."

The accident occurred shortly after 6 p.m. (7 p.m. ET) when dozens of cars were on the bridge.

Witnesses described a "dust cloud" as it collapsed, sending cars and and chunks of concrete plunging into the Mississippi River below.

At least 60 people were taken to local hospitals, said Minneapolis Fire Chief Jim Clack. See photos of the disaster »

All survivors have been taken off the bridge, said Minneapolis police Chief Tim Dolan during a news conference Wednesday night. Crews have searched 50 cars and are looking for more possible victims, but the mission has changed from a rescue to a recovery mode.

"We have confirmed that this will be a very tragic night when it is over," said Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak.

Mark Lacroix, who lives on the 20th floor of an apartment building near the bridge, told CNN he saw the last seconds of the collapse.

"I heard this massive rumbling and shaking basically and looked out my window," Lacroix said. "It just fell right into the river." Watch Lacroix describe the collapse »

Another witness was walking on a pedestrian bridge nearby when he saw the disaster.

"There were several cars completely just crushed. ... I saw some policeman walk up to the drivers' windows and look and and kept walking on by, so either the person was deceased or not in the car," Joe Costello said.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said it saw no indications of terrorism in the incident.

Construction took place on the bridge Tuesday night and was to take place again Wednesday night, according to the Minnesota Department of Transportation. The highway would have been restricted to a single lane in both directions from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. both nights.

The bridge was undergoing redecking work, but nothing structural was being done, U.S. Transportation Department spokesman Brian Turmail said.

There were eight construction workers on the bridge at the time of the collapse, and one of them is unaccounted for, said Mike McGray, president of Progressive Contractors, the company doing the repair work on the bridge.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty said inspections of the 40-year-old bridge in 2005 and 2006 found no structural defects, but a 2001 study conducted by the Minnesota Department of Transportation found "several fatigue problems" in the bridge's approach spans and "poor fatigue details" on the main truss.

The study suggested that the design of bridge's main truss could cause a collapse if one of two support planes were to become cracked, although it allowed that a collapse might not occur in that event. But, the study concluded, "fatigue cracking of the deck truss is not likely" and "replacement of the bridge ... may be deferred."

After the collapse, the nearby University of Minnesota Medical Center received "just a handful" of injuries from the accident, spokesman Ryan Davenport said.

"One of our hospitals has five patients so far, and the other on the other side of the river has none," he said.

Nancy Ebert of Northwestern Hospital said it had received four injured people -- two children and two adults.

Dr. Joseph Clinton, chief of emergency medicine at Hennepin County Medical Center, said the hospital is treating 28 injured people, six of them critically hurt.

He also said the hospital received one patient who was pronounced dead on arrival. "We have one drowning victim here, and I believe there are more drowning victims at the scene," he said.

Witnesses told CNN a school bus filled with children was on the bridge when it collapsed, but they also said the bus did not drop into the water and it appeared that all the children had been evacuated.

Jeff Pearson, regional vice president of First Student, Inc. -- which handles school buses in Minneapolis -- said that about 60 children, plus teachers, chaperones and a driver, were on the bus and that all were accounted for.

Aerial footage showed the middle of the bridge caved in, lying in the Mississippi River, with cars both on top and submerged in the water. The main part of the collapsed span was not submerged, but the span clearly separated from the land-based sections of the highway on both the north and south ends of the bridge.

A witness said it looked like "toy cars" were plunging into the water.

"I heard a terrible noise, and then I looked. It seemed like a piece of the bridge was pancaking and going down," said Janet Stately. "I said, 'Did we really see that? Did we really see that?' and it was unbelievable."

About 100,000 cars a day travel over the bridge, according to the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

Vauxhall's new Calibra will have the very latest technology which is set to make the company's models some of the safest in the world.

The firm has come up with an incredible safety system which should drastically reduce the chance of a road traffic accident.

Called Vehicle-to-Vehicle – or V2V for short – it employs some highly sophisticated GPS-based technology that enables two cars in close proximity to ‘talk’ to each other.

Capable of calculating location, speed, acceleration and direction of travel, the system can be used to warn the driver of a potential collision – for example, if a car ahead is stopped on a blind bend. In such a situation, V2V can warn the driver visually, acoustically or by vibrations through their seat. The electronics will even automatically apply the brakes if the driver takes no action.

Vehicle-to-Vehicle can also be used to alert the driver to overtaking cars hidden in their blind spot, to unindicated lane changes by other drivers and to potential rear end collisions – where it flashes the brake lights to warn the driver behind too. The system isn’t yet available on production Vauxhalls, but will be shortly. Read Auto Express next week for an exclusive test of the technology.