Reporters should press National Highway Traffic Safety Administrator Nicole Nason to address hard questions suggested by a predecessor in a Jan. 28 New York Times Op-Ed. The reason for asking the questions couldn’t be plainer: They bear heavily on whether many of us will be needlessly killed or injured every year. Joan Claybrook asked why NHTSA doesn’t test:

• To evaluate survivability in rollovers?
• To measure the effects of size differential when a passenger car collides with, say, a light truck?
• Vehicle structure in frontal, off-center crashes?
• Fuel tank vulnerability in rear-end collisions?
• How badly pedestrians are injured when hit by vehicles, particularly in view of the fact that most such consumer information tests are being performed, or are being developed, in Europe, Australia and Japan?
• Cars at the higher speeds they’re driven by millions every day?
• Sport utility vehicles against insubstantial barriers?

Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, was NHTSA administrator from 1977 to 1981. In her time, heads of agencies responsible for protecting the lives, safety and health of Americans were questioned now and then on Sunday morning talk shows. For example, while covering the Food and Drug Administration for the Washington Post, I was invited to appear with new FDA Commissioner James L. Goddard on “Face the Nation.” One of my questions was whether the testing of the first birth-control pill–which I detailed—had been adequate to establish its safety. A nationwide TV audience heard his answer: No.

Today, by contrast, “Meet the Press,” “Face the Nation,” “This Week” and the rest seem content mostly to re-cycle a small cast of senators, particularly those who are declared or probable presidential candidates. Rarely does Tim Russert, Bob Schieffer or George Stephanapolous bring on an agency head, say, Nicole Nason, to face informed, tough challenges on clear issues of life and death.

Progress this is not.