After a six-year battle, federal safety regulators opened to the public a database that details thousands of deaths, injuries, property claims, lawsuits, recalls, and other reported defects made to auto and tire manufacturers. The database, which was created in the aftermath of the recall of 14.4 million Firestone tires, is designed to help prevent auto defects from causing widespread harm.
Auto and tire makers began submitting the data to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 2003. The information served to alert the NHTSA to an increase in warranty claims, injuries, and other data collected on vehicles, in order to pinpoint serious issues before they caused harm.
Safety advocates praise the decision to open the database as “a victory for consumers,” but claim that it isn’t “consumer friendly” enough and doesn’t disclose enough information. In July, a federal appeals court upheld the NHTSA’s right to keep some information out of the public sphere. The data the agency withholds from the database include warranty claims, consumer complaints, and the last six digits of vehicle VIN numbers.
The issue of exactly how much data the NHTSA should be forced to disclose has been debated endlessly in the courts. Consumer safety advocates demand a more comprehensive picture of the “early warning” information to give consumers more power and hold auto manufacturers accountable for the safety of their vehicles.
The agency has used the early warning information they’ve acquired in 84 defect investigations, 25 of which began as a result of trends spotted in the data.
Automakers cite the early warning system as a major factor behind the decline in the number of recalled vehicles. According to Rae Tyson, a NHTSA spokesman, “the data submitted by the manufacturers is doing exactly what Congress intended — to get into the hands of our investigators.”
The early warning data will be updated every three months at www.safercar.gov. For questions about consumer information and how you can protect your rights, visit the website of the NC Attorney General or contact our North Carolina lemon law office.
Information source: The Detroit News. Article published September 11, 2008.
