`ac 0 `HEN Ralph Nader answered the telephone the other day, a somber voice said, "Ralph, this is Kathleen Sullivan. I want to thank you. We hear you all the time arguing for safety devices, but it doesn't really sink in until it strikes home." Sullivan, the CBS reporter and host of The Morning Program, told Nader about the recent auto crash involving her parents. They were driving in Idaho when her father fell asleep at the wheel. The car went off the highway and down an embankment, was airborne for about 50 feet, and then rolled over. Although police officers called to the scene expected to find the occupants fatally injured, the I989 Lincoln Continental was equipped with full front-seat air bags and shoulder/lap belts which prevented serious injury or death. Sullivan's mother and father were hospitalized for only a few days. This story is just one of thousands we will hear about in the years to come as auto manufacturers gear up to meet the federal safety standard requiring automatic restraints, which becomes effective in I990 models. The standard requires manufacturers to install either air bags or automatic safety belts in the front seats of all cars, although companies that install air bags can delay passenger-side restraints until 1993. More than two-and-a-half million I990, air bag-equipped cars are now planned. Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca, who opposed the air bag standard for almost zo years, admitted last year that "you can teach an old dog new tricks." Chrysler has announced that air bags will be standard equipment on the driver side of all its vehicles. Mercedes Benz is the industry leader, having made air bags standard equipment since 1985. Ford, in a major policy change, announced two years ago that air bags would be installed on the driver side of most of its I990 domestic production, with some on the passenger side as well. General Motors lags behind