Industry News: Two U.S. Senators Introduce A Bill Requiring Automakers To Give Data With Defects

[William Maley]

In light of GM's massive 1.6 million vehicle recall and Toyota's massive $1.2 billion settlement over the unattended acceleration problem, two U.S. Senators introduced legislation to require automakers to provide more information concerning incidents that involve the loss of human life.

Senators Ed Markey, D-Massachusetts., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut introduced the Early Warning Reporting System Improvement Act yesterday. The bill would require automobile and equipment manufacturers to submit accident reports or other documents automatically to NHTSA’s Early Warning Reporting database. NHTSA cannot access this information unless they request them.

The bill would also require NHTSA to make information it gets from automakers available in a searchable, user-friendly format so drivers and experts can look and evaluate potential defects.

“A massive information breakdown at NHTSA has led to deadly vehicle breakdowns on our roads. The Department of Transportation has the authority to require critical safety information be made publicly available, but it has never used its authority. We need the Early Warning Reporting system to provide actual early warnings to ensure the public is informed and possible defects are fully investigated,” said Markey.

Safety experts say this is a good start, but more needs to be done.

“In light of the problems revealed with Toyota unintended acceleration and Cobalt air bags, we know EWR is broken and needs to be fixed. Auto companies have run millions of defective vehicles through loopholes in EWR, including not having to submit documents on deaths caused by defects when they first learn of them.” said Clarence Ditlow, executive director for the Center for Auto Safety.

Source: The Detroit News

William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.

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[Drew Dowdell]

*sigh* what a waste of time.... the data is already out there and searchable going back into the 1960s

That's how I did the article on Recalling Toyota's Recalls

[SAmadei]

But thats only data about recall defects. I didn't read the articles, but I imagine the point here is to get ALL a carmaker's defect data. I'm certain GM knows the failure rate for most parts... probably even before the cars are sold.

In the end, this will become another barrier to entry into the North American car market.

I'm surprised some legislator hasn't proposed a law requiring some complex mechanism to shut off the car... like manual cars used to have... that required two hands to remove the key. Ugh.

[Drew Dowdell]

true... I'm sure my article would have been much longer had it included all of Toyota's secret technical service bulletins

[G. David Felt]

Waste of time, this pretty much goes down the path of total gov control of what you do, when you do it and how you do it and allows people who are reckless and do not bother to take the time to maintain and repair their auto's to blame someone else for their stupidity.

In other words this legislation is the continuation of going down the road of truly building a new cast system of have and have not's and blaming everyone else for a person not taking the responsibility of doing their maintenance and repairing normal wear and tear items.

At this rate I could see auto makers building cars that last 100K miles and then saying you have to turn it back in for destruction and you really never own the auto.