Battle's not over. (Editorial).

You have to be impressed with the way the Rubber Manufacturers Association is dealing with the formation of the Transportation Recall Enhancement Accountability and Documentation (TREAD) Act. The RMA was aggressive in helping to shape this legislation and even more diligent after the auto industry was successful in watering down the tire pressure monitoring aspects.

After the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration determined the RMA's solution of a direct tire pressure monitoring system was the best way to insure motorist safety, the auto industry exerted its influence on the Bush administration to have an indirect system. The NHTSA had already determined the direct system was far superior and will fail to prevent numerous accident fatalities and serious injuries. The auto companies won. In June of this year, the NHTSA's ruling called for the indirect system.

This didn't stop the RMA. It brought its case to influential congress members, lobbied the press and even got support from some unlikely sources.

Congressmen W.J. Tauzin (R-LA) and Edward Markey (D-MA), principal sponsors of the TREAD act, wrote a letter to the NHTSA raising concerns that the ruling "may jeopardize safety by allowing tires on vehicles to reach an unsafe condition before a motorist is warned." There have been articles favorable to the RMA's position in most of the nation's leading papers, and the American Automobile Association urged the NHTSA to take seriously the concerns raised by the tiremakers.

But the biggest boost to the RMA position will probably come from long time adversaries Joan Claybrook and Clarence Ditlow. The truism "politics makes strange bedfellows" is never more evident after seeing these two long-time tire industry critics on the same side of an issue with the RMA. Claybrook, a former administrator of NHTSA, is now president of Public Citizen, a national consumer advocacy organization. Ditlow is executive director of the Center for Auto Safety. These two groups have been joined by the New York Public Interest Research Group in a lawsuit to force the NHTSA to change its rule. They want the federal courts to direct the NHTSA to comply with the intent of Congress's initial legislation. Ditlow said, "Indirect tire pressure sensors are a second-rate solution to a first-rate safety problem. American consumers deserve the best system to save lives, not the second best system to save auto companies money."

Kudos to the RMA for getting its case out to the public and lobbying the necessary organizations. An added help would be for us in the industry to write our congresspeople and tell them the same thing Ditlow said.