U.S., Chrysler Push to Keep Minivan Safety Data Secret : Probe: They call on federal judge to bar release of government’s findings in controversial rear-hatch case.

WASHINGTON — Months after the U.S. Department of Transportation reached a controversial compromise with Chrysler Corp., sparing the company from a mandatory safety recall of its popular minivans, the government has joined the car maker in arguing that investigative test data on the case should be kept secret.

At issue are videotapes of test crashes and other material from an investigation into whether inadequate latches have allowed the rear hatches of Chrysler’s minivans to fly open during accidents, exposing passengers to injury or death.

Both the government and the company are urging a federal judge here to prohibit release of the government’s test findings, which the Transportation Department has already shared with Chrysler. A new hearing on the issue is scheduled for Monday. The government tapes show rear hatches popping open when test vehicles were struck, according to people familiar with the findings. The tests were conducted after the government became alarmed because of fatal accidents in which the latches were suspected of being a factor.

As of March of this year, according to a Transportation Department memorandum, government investigators studying actual highway accidents had documented “151 alleged crash-related lift-gate openings in Chrysler minivans which may have resulted in as many as 107 ejections [from the vehicles], 76 injuries and 32 fatalities.”

Many of those killed or injured were children, who were thrown out the rear of the minivans when the lift-gates flew open.

Chrysler has denied any safety defect but on March 27 announced that it would offer redesigned replacements for the rear hatch latches on some 4 million minivans made between 1984 and 1994. The government, in turn, agreed not to declare the latches defective or to demand a recall.

Yet five months after the agreement was announced, Chrysler still has not supplied the new latches to its dealers.

During a hearing last month, U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler described Chrysler’s opposition to releasing the government’s investigative data:

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“I think what I really hear you saying,” Kessler said, while addressing a lawyer for Chrysler, “is that if these tapes were released, the public would get so scared that they would all go dashing to their Chrysler dealer and say that they want [the] latch replaced tomorrow.”

Kessler is expected to rule soon on whether to order the release of the crash-test videotapes and the other related data.

Chrysler continues to maintain that the original rear-hatch latches perform adequately and that the minivans are safe. Rick Deneau, a company spokesman, said Chrysler would begin next month to notify minivan owners that they may schedule appointments to have their latches replaced at no cost. A replacement latch first had to be engineered, he said, adding: “Now it’s a question of supply.”

Newly filed public records show that as of mid-July--less than four months after the government reached its agreement with Chrysler--at least five more deaths have occurred in accidents involving the rear-hatch latches of the minivans.

The court battle over the investigative data is being pressed by Ralph Hoar, an Arlington, Va., consultant who also has challenged the safety of the Chrysler minivan latches. Hoar and other activists were critical of the government’s decision not to declare the latches defective nor to seek a formal safety recall.

Hoar and other critics argued that public safety was compromised by the agreement with Chrysler because, absent the finding of a defect, far fewer minivan owners would go to the trouble of replacing the latches.

Officials at the Transportation Department have defended the agreement, saying that it spared the government the cost and uncertainties of protracted litigation. Ben Langer, an agency spokesman, said Thursday that officials would not comment on the dispute over releasing the investigative files.

Hoar first sought the investigative data by filing a request with the Transportation Department under the federal Freedom of Information Act. After his request was denied, he filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court. A Transportation Department representative earlier this year rejected a request by The Times for much of the same data.

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Hoar and his lawyers said the agency is required to divulge the investigative data because the examination of the minivan latches culminated on March 27, when Chrysler announced that it would replace the latch of any concerned vehicle owner. In a press release that same day, Ricardo Martinez, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, praised Chrysler’s announcement as an act of “safety leadership.”

Lawyers for the federal agency have said in court that the data should not be disclosed because the investigation of the latches has not been formally closed.

The highway safety agency has not made clear at what point it would consider the matter closed. Officials have told The Times that the agency will “monitor,” for an open-ended period of time, Chrysler’s efforts to replace the latches.

In arguing against disclosure of the investigative data, a lawyer for Chrysler, Ronald L. Plesser, told Kessler last month that the company had encountered “a significant design problem” in trying to develop a suitable replacement latch. Chrysler this summer expanded its original offer to owners of 1984-1994 minivans, saying that the company also will provide replacements for a separate, latch-release component for 1995 models.

“The concern of Chrysler,” Plesser said in court, is “that the release of this tape will impact its ability to control the process of an orderly [rear latch] replacement. . . . If these tapes are prematurely released, and if it’s as inflammatory as I think Chrysler believes it would be, that the demand to get replacements will so outstrip their ability to make the replacements that further concern and critical disruption will be made.”

Top company representatives were shown excerpts from the government’s crash tapes during a Nov. 17, 1994, meeting at the highway safety agency.

Kathleen C. Demeter, director of the agency’s defect investigations, acknowledged in a sworn statement filed in court on Aug. 8 that the sharing with Chrysler of the videotapes and other internal investigative data was a “departure from [the agency’s] normal practice.” But Demeter said the government showed the materials to Chrysler as part of an attempt to resolve the controversy “without extensive and time-consuming litigation.”

Five months after Chrysler representatives were shown the videotapes, they agreed to conduct the latch-replacement campaign. At this point, Hoar said in an interview, the goal of the highway safety agency should be to help persuade a maximum number of minivan owners to get their latches replaced. Releasing the videotapes would help, he said.

“There is no logical reason for the government withholding the films. . . ,” Hoar said. “It’s time to convince the van owners to replace the latches.”