Washington ? Offered for just three years, power adjusters for the gas and brake pedals have become Ford Motor Co.’s best-selling optional feature.

Ford markets the adjusters as a convenience that allows drivers to sit farther from the steering wheel while still reaching the pedals. The feature has been popular with consumers of all sizes, and other automakers are beginning to offer adjusters.

But a lawsuit against Ford contends the adjusters are not just for comfort they can save shorter drivers from injuries in a crash by keeping them farther back from the steering wheel air bag, which can inflate at speeds of up to 200 mph.

The suit, which goes to trial Tuesday in Louisville, Ky., claims Ford was negligent because it knew about adjusters’ safety potential long before it started offering the option.

“There was a major risk that was known in the automobile industry to short-statured female drivers from the deployment of air bags, and this particular invention eased that risk,” said attorney Ron Hillerich, representing the family of a woman who was killed when an air bag deployed.

Ford rejects the claim. It acknowledges the safety benefit but said that it has not tried to market the adjusters that way.

“Even before you had these adjustable pedals, you could purchase pedal extenders,” Ford spokeswoman Sara Tatchio said. “This isn’t a new concept, but a more convenient way of delivering it.”

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If the company were to promote the adjusters as helping prevent air bag injuries, Ford officials fear it could be open the automaker to more lawsuits if a driver is hurt or killed by an air bag while using the adjustable pedals.

“I think we are a little reluctant to call it a safety feature because there’s some baggage associated with that,” said Susan Cischke, Ford’s vice president of environmental and safety engineering.

Life and death adjustment

Adjusters can move the pedals up to 3 inches closer to a driver. They are deployed by pressing buttons next to the steering wheel.

“Three inches can clearly mean the difference between life and death,” said Sean Kane of Strategic Safety, a research company that is helping Hillerich and other attorneys planning lawsuits over the adjusters.

Pedal adjusters were first patented in the 1950s. General Motors Corp. introduced them in its larger vehicles in the 1970s, but phased them out a few years later because of slow sales.

Modern electric versions were introduced in the 1990s, after reports surfaced of people dying from injuries when air bags deployed in low and moderate speed crashes. Many of the victims were shorter women who tend to sit closer to the steering wheel.

Since 1990, at least 68 drivers have been killed by air bags, including 21 who were wearing their seat belt, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Ford introduced the adjusters in the 1999 models of its Explorer and Lincoln Navigator sport utility vehicles and has expanded the option to other models. Sales range from 43 percent of buyers on F-series trucks and Taurus cars to 25 percent on the Explorer.

Other manufacturers are getting in on the market. DaimlerChrysler AG offers the adjusters on its newest minivans and the 2002 Dodge Ram and Jeep Grand Cherokee. Toyota hopes to introduce the adjusters on the 2003 Camry.

DaimlerChrysler spokeswoman Angela Ford said her company sells the pedal adjusters as a benefit for safety and comfort. But, she added, “I don’t think that in any way we are saying it would save someone’s life.”

Too close for safety

The government recommends drivers maintain at least 10 inches between their chest and the air bag. But a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety showed that as many as 5 percent of female drivers sit closer.

In the Kentucky suit, Lynn Struttman of Lexington, Ky., who was 4-foot-9, died after being struck by the air bag in her 1997 Sable when it deployed in a low-speed crash.

Hillerich said the adjuster would have saved Struttman’s life, “without question.”

Stephen Kratzke, NHTSA’s associate administrator for safety performance standards, said adjusters are an important safety benefit even if the automakers do not market them that way. He said the agency is studying how to get the message out to consumers.

“We should be doing a better job conveying that,” he said.