Issues
Activist’s Crusade Stalls as Auto Safety Goals Collide
Late on the evening of June 4, 2007, Mary Kay Kidwell’s 17-year-old grandson drove his 1990 Toyota Camry off a back road and into an Indiana reservoir. Trey Kidwell had taken a wrong turn while returning to his Centerville, Ind., home from a visit to a friend in a nearby town. He didn’t know that the road ended at Brookville Lake.
Car backup camera rule delayed again by NHTSA
Click here to view the article from Consumer Reports
Backup Camera Rule With $2.7 Billion Cost Delayed Again by U.S.
By Angela Greiling Keane – Feb 29, 2012
A U.S. rule that may require all cars and light trucks sold in the country to have rear-view cameras won’t be issued by today’s deadline and may be delayed until after November’s presidential election, regulators said.
A 2008 auto-safety law signed by President George W. Bush mandated the Transportation Department to issue the requirement by the end of 2011. It’s now being pushed back a second time by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and will be issued by Dec. 31, the department said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.
U.S. Delays Rule on Rearview Car Camera
DETROIT — Safety regulators will not complete the details of a rule mandating rearview cameras on all passenger vehicles until the end of the year, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told Congressional leaders on Tuesday.
U.S. Rule Set for Cameras at Cars’ Rear – 2/27/12
On average, two children die and about 50 are injured every week when someone accidentally backs over them in a vehicle, according to KidsAndCars.org, a nonprofit group that pushed the government to begin tracking such tragedies. And more than two-thirds of the time, a parent or other close relative is behind the wheel.
Jeep “death wobble” leaves drivers shaken
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Should Rental Companies Be Required To Fix Recalled Cars?
By Richard Read | HighGearMedia.com, Published: February 24
In 2004, Raechel and Jacqueline Houck rented a Chrysler PT Cruiser from Enterprise Rent-A-Car — a vehicle that had been recalled for a power steering fluid leak. While driving, the leaking fluid caught fire, which caused the sisters to lose control of the car and collide with a big rig. Both women were killed.
Enterprise changes course, says it supports legislation for oversight on recalls
Associated Press,
ST. LOUIS — Enterprise Rent-A-Car now says it will support legislation to increase federal oversight of how car rental firms manage safety recalls for vehicles in their fleets.
A Force to Fix Rental Car Policy
By Janie Lorber
Roll Call Staff
Feb. 27, 2012, Midnight
For months, Enterprise Rent-A-Car has been fighting legislation that would make it illegal to rent vehicles that have been recalled by their manufacturers.
But it only took 48 hours for a Change.org petition to force Enterprise, the industry’s most powerful lobbying force and biggest political donor, to the bargaining table.