Issues

Unsafe At Any Speed – Fiftieth Anniversary (1965-2015)

November 30, 2015

November 30, 2015, marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Ralph Nader’s landmark book Unsafe at Any Speed. The book focused on the faulty rear suspension system of the General Motors Corvair, This defect could cause the Corvair to skid violently and roll over. The corporate negligence that had produced the various Corvair defects, Nader said, was “one of the greatest acts of industrial irresponsibility.” More generally, Unsafe at Any Speed documented how Detroit habitually subordinated safety to style and marketing concerns.

50 Years Ago, ‘Unsafe at Any Speed’ Shook the Auto World

November 30, 2015

FEW DRIVERS could imagine owning a car these days that did not come with airbags, antilock brakes and seatbelts. But 50 years ago motorists went without such basic safety features.

Road Warrior: Safety advocates contend highway bill won’t cut it

November 18, 2015

Safety first!

Perhaps Congress could grasp what that accident-prevention slogan meant when it was coined during the golden age of railroading in 1873, a time when the federal government managed to scrape by on a $290 million budget. But this week, safety priorities seem open to question as House and Senate conferees attempt to patch together a transportation budget that would spend a few hundred times more each year than it took old Ulysses S. Grant to run the whole country back then.

Questions raised about General Motors, government action in recall over thousands of car fires

November 18, 2015

DETROIT – Shortly after Elizabeth Berry parked her bright yellow 2003 Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS on the street in front of her family’s home in May 2014, flames engulfed the engine, destroying the car and scorching her mailbox.

“I was hysterical. That was like my third baby,” she says of the car.

Compounding the shock was the fact that five years earlier, Berry had answered a recall notice from General Motors for a repair that was supposed to prevent engine fires.

ARCCA Petition for Rulemaking on NHTSA Seating System Regulations, FMVSS 207

November 9, 2015

ARCCA PETITIONS THE NHTSA TO PROTECT OCCUPANTS IN REAR-END COLLISIONS

Alan Cantor of ARCCA submitted a petition to NHTSA in 1989 r

How a small White House agency stalls life-saving regulations

November 8, 2015

The little-known Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs can delay, rewrite or kill rules mandated by Congress, and as the case of requiring rearview cameras on cars shows, it often uses that power.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – But for a small, little-known White House agency, Melissa Helcher might not have killed Clark Biddle in a Columbus, Ohio, parking lot on a cold February day this year.

Beware the Fine Print: New York Times Series on Arbitration Clauses

November 6, 2015

Part 1: Arbitration Everywhere, Stacking the Deck of Justice – 10/31/15

Part 2: In Arbitration, a ‘Privatization of the Justice System’ – 11/1/15

NHTSA Grants CAS Petition on Heavy Truck Automatic Forward Collision Avoidance

November 5, 2015

 

Click here to view the Federal Register notice granting the CAS Petition – 10/16/15

News: NHTSA grants petition to create rulemaking that would mandate collision mitigation systems – 10/16/15

CAS Statement on Takata Consent Decree and Fine

November 3, 2015

November 3, 2015

More Information: 202-328-7700

Takata Deserves Criminal Penalties

Volkswagen Failed to Report Fatal Incident to Regulator

November 2, 2015

Volkswagen AG failed to report at least one death and three injuries involving its vehicles to a U.S. regulator’s database designed to save lives by spotting possible defects.

Lawsuits concerning the accidents, filed over the last eight years, weren’t found in records kept by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in searches by Bloomberg and financial adviser Stout Risius Ross Inc. Automakers are required by law to report all claims of possible vehicle defects to the NHTSA database.