Auto Safety News
In 2001, in response to the Ford-Firestone crashes involving defective tires, Congress passed the TREAD Act. The Public Citizen says the TREAD Act was passed because of the agency's “long history of responding lethargically to safety defects,” and the new law required select safety data to be gathered by the government and made available to the public. According to Public Citizen, the NHTSA, when putting the law into practice, has decided to keep much of the information from the public, which the agency does not have the authority to do.
By making more information available, the TREAD Act was supposed to enable government investigators to spot potential safety defects quickly with the early warning data and for the public to be alerted about potential vehicle problems. Instead, the advocacy group says the NHTSA has withheld information about warranty claims, production numbers, field reports and consumer complaints, putting public health at stake.
The NHTSA's failure to open complete records, the Public Citizen told the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, is a violation of the Freedom of Information Act, which is supposed to open records and improve government accountability. The NHTSA's “incompetence in responding to available information on the Ford/Firestone debacle is what prompted Congress passed the TREAD Act,” according to the Public Citizen, which is why the group says it sued the agency last March and is continuing to fight to make the data public.
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