By ANGELA CAVE
Why? Cars -- especially hybrids -- are getting quieter, Grassman said.
"It's hard enough for an average mother," said Grassman, whose 9- and 12-year-olds are also blind. All three use long, white canes as walking guides. "With hybrid cars out there, I'm terrified for them. For me, it's pretty much a triple whammy."
Grassman broke her toe and sprained her ankle in June after being hit by a black Lexus, which was noisier than hybrids, she said. Still, she did not hear it coming.
Stories like Grassman's from a number of the nation's 1.3 million blind people inspired U.S. Rep. Edolphus Towns, a Democrat from Brooklyn, to introduce a bill in April that would, if passed into law, require the U.S. Department of Transportation to study the situation and create a safety standard for alerting pedestrians -- both blind and sighted -- about oncoming vehicles. Singled out were hybrid vehicles, which run whisper-quiet at speeds lower than 34 miles per hour, though there is talk of extending research to all vehicles. The bill has attracted the support of 51 co-sponsors in the House, according to a spokeswoman for Towns. Similar legislation has been proposed in at least New York, Hawaii, Arizona and Maryland.
Organizations like the Society of Automotive Engineers and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have formed committees and started researching possible solutions, one of which is an engine-simulating noisemaker. "The sound that we're advocating for will not be that loud," said John Pare of the National Federation of the Blind, who along with the American Council for the Blind has been active in pushing for the legislation. "It will only be a safe sound."
But already there is backlash.
Merrick's Abby Block, who owns a 2008 Toyota Prius, said, "For the average pedestrian who can see OK, I really don't believe that increased engine noise is going to help them because it's just going to add to the cacophony of noise that's already present. If blind people are really finding it to be a problem, then maybe the sound does need to be increased, but a lot of people I see, they don't pay attention. As a driver, I have to look out for everybody."
Similarly, Sy Cohen's 2006 Prius elicits no different reactions from pedestrians than do the three Ford Explorers he has owned over the years. "It just seems to me that our lawmakers really have other priorities that they have to follow," said Cohen, of Melville. "I've been regarding the whole thing as little more than a joke." The noise from a Prius's air conditioner, fan and tires should be enough, he said.
Dan Selke, chairman of a Society of Automotive Engineers committee mobilized in January to collect data and test alert methods, said, "It's kind of a conundrum we're in. We're trying to come up with, perhaps, a minimum sound. We just don't want to make a bigger problem out of what we find." He said a noise device prototype is expected by year's end.
"This is especially fast," said Wade Newton, a spokesman for the Auto Alliance, another collaborator. The only challenge Newton foresees is the time it might take for an idea to take hold.
Quiet vehicles might be more dangerous to casual bicyclists than to blind pedestrians, said West Babylon's Eric Bertrand-Loesch, a member of the Long Island Bicycle Club. He noted that he is not as worried about his 300 fellow club members, who heed strict safety precautions.
East Meadow cyclist Bill Selsky said he understands the bill's purpose, but he is not ready to support it. "I guess I have mixed feelings," Selsky said. "Quiet would be such a nice change. I think they're putting the car before the horse. I think I'd rather see the problem happening rather than act before it does."
Christopher Hogan, a health services researcher, shares this view. He analyzed accident databases and found that more research is needed for a safety standard to be justified. Between 2002 and 2006, an average of five legally blind pedestrians per year were killed in car accidents, Hogan found. None of the deaths involved a hybrid vehicle. About 10 percent of blind and sighted pedestrian deaths happened in a crosswalk.
Though Hogan said the mandate is premature, he said he believes it will pass. He predicted the installation of noisemakers to all new cars by 2013.
"Once the train leaves the station, it doesn't matter what the facts are. They're still going to do it," he said. "It's a real feel-good, and it doesn't seem to cost anybody anything."
But Hogan, a Prius owner, said he worries that extra noise would halt hybrids' rising popularity. "You really don't want to ding the image of hybrids -- even one little bit," he said.
U.S. registrations for new hybrids increased by 38 percent from 2006 to 2007, coming in at 350,289, according to R.L. Polk & Co., an automotive information provider. New York is the third largest hybrid vehicle market in the U.S.
Blind people comprise about .43 percent of the U.S. population and about .18 percent of Long Island's population, based on estimates of the U.S. Census Bureau and David Stayer, president of the Long Island chapter of the National Federation of the Blind.
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