By Carl Weiser
Enquirer Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Stickers on the windows of new cars soon could sport information designed to save drivers' lives: the car's crash-test ratings.

Sen. Mike DeWine, an Ohio Republican, introduced a package of bills Friday aimed at reducing the No. 1 cause of deaths for Americans ages 4 to 34 - car crashes.

His bills also would mandate clearer "birth" dates for tires, push safety groups to use more child-sized dummies in crash tests, and require states to rank and publicize their most dangerous roads and intersections.

"It might mean you tell your 16-year-old daughter: 'Don't drive on that road,' " said DeWine, a father of eight.

The centerpiece of his package is the "Stars on Cars" bill. It would require that stickers on new cars - the ones that show gas mileage, base price and standard equipment - show the car's crash-test ratings, which are expressed as a grade of one to five stars.

Those scores are available on the Internet or in various automotive publications. "But they're not available in the dealer's showroom, the one place where you most need that information," DeWine said.

Car makers said Friday that they would work with DeWine on the bill but didn't endorse it.

"There's not much space left on that sticker," said Eron Shosteck, a spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers.

And with crash-test ratings available for seven different categories from rollover to front passenger, "there's the potential for information overload, and that could lead to being ignored by consumers, which is not good for anybody," Shosteck said.

Consumer groups, which joined DeWine at his news conference, called his efforts long overdue. Safety advocate group Public Citizen has been lobbying car makers and federal safety officials for nearly a decade to put the safety information on the cars themselves. DeWine's bill is the first attempt from Congress to mandate them.

Buyers want to know how safe the cars are, how likely they are to roll over, and what happens when the cars are hit on the side or front. If they're given that information, they will buy safer cars, said Joan Claybrook, Public Citizen's president.

Delivery driver Bill Petersen of Sycamore Township said if vehicle safety information was available on the price stickers on cars, it would probably benefit car sellers and buyers.

"I'd like to see it," said Petersen, who stopped by Montgomery Ford on his day off Friday to look at the new Ford Mustang Mach 1.

"Instead of having to go to Consumer Reports or check the Internet for the safety rating for a car, it'd be right there. It'd definitely help me make a decision to buy faster."

Wes Isaacs, new car sales manager at Montgomery Ford in Montgomery, said he thinks most dealers would have no objections to selling cars with readily available safety information on their cars.

Other proposals:

Tire birth dates: Tires now note the week and year they were made, but it's hard to spot and decipher. (It's on the inner ring of writing.)

DeWine's bill would require invoices to feature the month and year tires were produced and require retailers to disclose that information.

"Tires are not like wine. They do not get better with age," DeWine said.

Rubber Manufacturers Association spokesman Dan Zielinski said the trade group was studying the bill and hoped to work with DeWine.

Tires do deteriorate, even without use, though the process can take years, he said.

Dave Morris of Roselawn, who was having his car serviced at the Firestone Tire & Service Center near Kenwood Towne Centre, said he'd never given much thought to the age of tires before he bought them.

"I just assumed I was buying new tires," Morris said. "I never thought about how long they'd been sitting on the shelf. I'm not sure how much difference it makes. But it's like buying milk at the grocery store. You always want the carton with the freshest expiration date."

Dangerous roads: States now collect and rank the most dangerous roads and intersections. Ohio publicizes such rankings, but some states do not. DeWine would make that mandatory.

Crash test dummies: DeWine would encourage the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to use more child-sized dummies in its crash tests and come up with a child-sized crash dummy to see what happens inside a car during a rollover.

Driver education: Calling driver training programs "at best, a very mixed bag," DeWine would create a National Office of Driver Training that would serve as a clearinghouse of information.

His bill also would require states to have graduated driver's licensing programs to get federal money. Such programs phase in teenager drivers, allowing them more freedom as they become more experienced drivers.

DeWine said the cost of his bills would be almost nothing to taxpayers and manufacturers, except for a revamped driver's education program, which would cost $20 million to $30 million a year.

Reporter Randy Tucker contributed.

E-mail cweiser@gannett.com