Critics say NHTSA has been slow to address problems. The watchdog says it’s beefing up its staff.
Richard and Carolyn Carlson were driving through rural Colorado in February 2005 when they hit a patch of black ice. Their Chrysler PT Cruiser spun backward into an embankment, causing the back of Carolyn’s seat to collapse. She was hurled into the roof and partway through the rear window.
In an instant, Carolyn Carlson became a quadriplegic, and one of the thousands of Americans who suffer injuries, or death, each year in crashes in which car seats break.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has looked at forcing automakers to build stronger seats, first considering new rules in the early 1990s. But automakers objected, arguing that the matter needed more study, and in 2004 the agency formally shelved the issue.
The agency’s handling of the seat-back regulation illustrates what has become a frequent criticism of NHTSA: that it is too slow to identify potential safety problems, and even slower to order potentially lifesaving fixes.
The agency has not ordered a mandatory recall since 1979. The largest fine it has ever issued was $1 million — small change for automakers with billions of dollars in annual sales — and it has not levied any such penalties against an automobile manufacturer since 2004.
Read more: http://articles.latimes.com/2009/dec/31/business/la-fi-highway-regulators31-2009dec31
