Air bags – National

"Car Safety: In the Bag"

"Rosemary Shahan has positioned herself in the middle of the fight (for air bags) for more than a decade. 'We're over the hump,' admits the president of the (CARS Foundation), a McLean-based consumer advocacy group. 'Now it's just a question how long is it going to take them to filter down' to all the cars on the road. The message is getting across to people that you're really at risk when you are riding in your car, and you need protection," says Shahan. 'That's something the auto makers have tried to downplay or deny over the years.'

"'We're seeing that seat belts really do save lives alone, but in many crash situations they're just not enough…There is going to be a point where nobody wants a car with an obsolete safety system.'--consumer advocate Rosemary Shahan."

– The Washington Post, August 15, 1989

 

"Air bags belong with seat belts, activist says"

'It is very important the public know that even though they are buckling up, their face and brain are still in jeopardy,' said Shahan, raised in North Canton and now head of the CARS Foundation, a Washington, D.C. group that lobbies for automotive safety…Shahan is concerned that many automakers are installing automatic seat belts, instead of air bags."

– Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 24, 1987

 

Consumer Affairs Letter "Dialogue"

"They call her the 'bag lady,' because of her fixation on air bags. Doubtless, many in the auto industry have other names for her as well, because of her effectiveness as a pioneer advocate of Lemon Laws and her hard line in the recent attempt at renegotiating FTC's informal dispute resolution regulations (Rule 703). Shahan's evolution from a woman scorned (by a San Diego car dealer who wouldn't fix her car properly), to the head of a potentially powerful national air bag coalition, is a classic case history in consumer activism."

– The Consumer Affairs Letter, Washington, D.C. September, 1987