Consumer groups are urging Congress to resist industry pressure to strip key provisions from a bill to strengthen auto safety regulation.
The proposed Motor Vehicle Safety Act was spurred by reports of sudden acceleration and brake problems that led to recalls of more than 8 million Toyota cars and trucks. The automaker was also fined $16.4 million for failing to promptly inform the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of possible defects.
If passed, the new law would include increased funding to the NHTSA and require that new vehicles include event data recorders and accelerator control and brake override systems. It would also increase the civil penalties that can be imposed on automakers for safety violations.
Safety groups including the Center for Auto Safety, Public Citizen and Consumer Federation of America sent a letter Wednesday to Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and to Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), the panel’s top Republican, defending provisions automakers are lobbying to remove from the legislation. ”American families will be safer when this bill is enacted,” the letter said.
In a separate statement, Jacqueline Gillan, vice president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, said the law “is needed to rein in companies that display a callous disregard for consumers and for the truth, to reduce the number of safety defects that cost countless lives and result in the recall of millions of vehicles each year, and to protect the lives of families who trust that their car will operate safely.”
Three former NHTSA administrators from the Bush, Clinton and Carter administrations sent their own letter, saying that “additional resources for NHTSA are crucially important because the motor vehicle safety program has been underfunded for years, and indeed is losing ground to additional requirements imposed on it and to inflation.”
Industry groups and allies, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, have expressed general support for the bill but are fighting some features they say could “negatively impact safety.”
In a letter to lawmakers last week, the groups objected to a provision allowing public access to early warning data, saying that they “are concerned about any wholesale changes in the treatment of raw, unverified data”, and that current regulations already put necessary information in the hands of regulators.
They also opposed a new safety fee car buyers would pay to fund NHTSA that would start at $3 and rise to $9 over the next three years. The letter argued that the proposed civil penalty cap of $200 million was excessive. The industry also opposes requiring used car dealers to check if vehicles they sell are subject to recalls and disclose to purchasers whether repairs have been made. They also do not want consumers or third parties to have the ability to appeal after a petition for recalls has been rejected by the NHTSA.
Earlier this month, the Los Angeles Times reported that legislation had already been watered down in the wake of industry opposition.
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