NHTSA Eying Ford, GM Vehicles as New Safety-Law Rework Looms
By Bill Visnic May 18, 2010It's not just Toyota Motor Corp. falling under the newly-watchful eye of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and its vehicle-recall powers: Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. each have a vehicle under the NHTSA microscope this week.
The NHTSA opened a formal investigation into 900,000 1999-2003 Ford Windstar minivans for the potential for the rear axle beam to corrode and potentially break. The administration's Office of Defects Investigation launched a formal inquiry this week after noting on its website that it had received 234 complaints about the condition and had begun a preliminary evaluation "to assess the scope, frequency and safety consequences of the alleged defect in the subject vehicles."
At GM, the vaunted Chevrolet Corvette is also the subject of a NHTSA investigation after 30 consumer complaints about fuel or fuel vapor leaking from the car's gas tank. The investigation covers about 33,000 2004-model vehicles.
The NHTSA's policies and procedures and the overall role of government regulation of the auto industry has come under increasing scrutiny after a series of complaints about unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles prompted investigation of the effectiveness of the nation's automotive regulatory system and whether the NHTSA had become too complacent in enforcing rules.
Now the Senate Commerce Committee is holding the first of a series of hearings this week to potentially vastly rework auto-industry oversight as proposed by the Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 2010, which was introduced earlier this month.
The bill mandates safety-equipment upgrades such as brake-override controls to help address probable causes of unintended acceleration, as well as a rule requiring event data recorders in all vehicles. The law also seeks to establish a standard for the geometry of accelerator and brake-pedal placement.
The Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 2010 also contains language seeking to increase the amount of civil penalties that can be levied on non-compliant automakers and would limit the ability of NHTSA employees leaving the agency to immediately go to work for automakers. - Bill Visnic, senior editor
Photos by automakers
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