NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind said he plans to crackdown on automakers and his own agency during a visit to Detroit.
There is “no way our country should tolerate 32,917 people dying on our roadways,” the new head of federal traffic safety enforcement declared during a visit to Detroit. Likening that to the crash of a fully loaded 747 “every single week,” Mark Rosekind promised to crack down on the auto industry – while also taking steps to fix problems at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The one-time head of the National Transportation Safety Board said it is time to for a complete change in the way both industry and government look at automotive safety. The focus has to be “proactive, rather than reactive,” explained Rosekind, who was sworn in as NHTSA administrator last December.
“We have a lot of catch-up to do,” stressed Rosekind, in a roundtable meeting in which he was perhaps tougher on his own agency than on the automakers it regulates.
Critics would say that’s for good reason. A recent federal auditor’s report blasted NHTSA for missing the General Motors ignition defect now blamed for more than 120 deaths. The report made 17 key recommendations – but Rosekind says his own list actually has at least 45 areas where NHTSA needs to improve its operations. And he promises to have those changes in place by the end of the year.
Mark Rosekind said he has 45 recommendations to improve NHTSA and he plans to implement them all by year's end.
That doesn’t mean the agency will only focus on its own, internal problems. It recently held what Rosekind described as an “unprecedented” hearing meant to examine Fiat Chrysler’s handling of 23 separate recalls. Finding major problems, NHTSA now expects to announce specific actions it will take against FCA by the end of this month, Rosekind announced.
That could include hefty fines, but NHTSA might also seek additional steps, such as a monitoring program meant to improve the handling of safety problems at Fiat Chrysler in the future. The safety chief also suggested NHTSA might seek to have FCA divert some of any fine it levies into a consumer safety program.
Rosekind also warned that NHTSA may go back and look at how Fiat Chrysler handled other recalls.
The administrator spent much of his time during an hour-long session with reporters talking about the role “bleeding edge” technology will likely play in improving automotive safety. But he stressed that part of his challenge will be finding ways to encourage innovation while also ensuring that it works. “Bring us the data,” he challenged manufacturers.
There has, for one thing, been talk of NHTSA mandating the use of forward collision warning systems that data show can reduce crashes. Rather than setting specific requirements, however, Rosekind revealed that the government expects to revise its NCAP – or New Car Assessment Program in the near future.
These days, noted Rosekind, virtually all vehicles on the road achieve a four- or five-star rating, “so, it’s time to raise the benchmark.” And vehicles might soon be rated according to the type, and capabilities, of anti-crash technology they come with.
(Feds aim for “more muscular” auto safety oversight. For more, Click Here.)
That would not be a unique move, however. Forward collision warning technology is now a requirement for a vehicle to get a Top Safety Pick Plus rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
Rosekind said he is particularly optimistic about the long-term potential of self-driving vehicle technology. He will, in fact, be the keynote speaker at an autonomous vehicle conference on Tuesday. But he cautioned there are plenty of challenges ahead before the technology can go from prototype testing to the real world.
And, among other things, he said NHTSA and Congress will have to re-examine their own roles in the development process. “We are trying to figure out if innovation will run up against regulations,” he explained.
(Click Here for details about how the feds plan to punish FCA for safety lapses.)
Manufacturers like Nissan, General Motors and Tesla have promised to begin rolling out autonomous technology over the next few years, but it could be 20 to 30 years before all vehicles are capable of hands-free driving, and that could create some real challenges, Rosekind said. Indeed, Google has acknowledged its autonomous prototypes have so far been involved in 14 crashes, all supposedly caused by the other driver.
Nonetheless , “The first time a self-driving car hits somebody, and someone gets hurt or is fatally injured, we’re going to get the phone call,” said Rosekind.
Separately, Rosekind noted that NHTSA has so far evaluated tests of about 40,000 airbag inflators produced by Takata – the Japanese supplier now blamed for the recall of 40 million vehicles worldwide. So far, a little less than 1% of those older bag systems failed under controlled lab testing. And about “70 to 80%” of those failures involved airbags from vehicles used in Florida.
(To see more about the criticism of NHTSA’s performance, Click Here.)
While a precise cause of the Takata problem has yet to be found, the issue has been linked to vehicles operating in states with especially high humidity.
The first thing to do to reduce vehicular deaths is remove 85% of all U.S. drivers from the highway until they prove they have the proper driving skills to be safe on the roadways. Since most people in the U.S. lack the proper skills and ability to drive properly, a huge problem will be significantly reduced by removing 80+ % of vehicular operators.
I’m sure 15% would be closer to it. But I don’t know how it is where you live – part of the problem here is budget constraints mean there is no more driving test, no driver training, and no inspection at all (no safety, emissions, lights, brakes, NO inspection of any type state-wide). At least they did repeal the Bubba Rides Free part of the seatbelt law that exempted anyone with a pick-up truck from having to wear a seatbelt this past year.
I personally believe the percentage of unskilled drivers in the U.S. is at least 75% IME.
I don’t know where you live but to me it’s completely irresponsible to issue driver’s licenses to people who lack proper driving skills. The joke for years is that they give them out for free at Wally World and K-Mart and from the highway fatalities annually, the joke might be reality after all.
The lack of state annual vehicular safety inspections is also a contributor to unsafe vehicles on the roadways. I am always amazed that so many people with a POS unsafe vehicle insist on driving (typically slowly) in the left lane so that they do not have to think or react to merging or turning traffic. I guess this gives them more time to text while careening down the roadway?
Trucks now almost exclusively use the second lane on interstate highways and this can cause real issues with traffic congestion and road rage, especially when one 18-wheeler uses the left lane to pass another 18-wheeler going 1 mph slower.
Exactly. Having some government bureaucrat fulminating over car defects that may, or should I say might, have killed a few hundred people over the last decade is a laugh.
Of course, his implication, which is complete rubbish, is that the deaths were caused by defective vehicles.
Right, and all the head-ons or rollovers into ditches were caused by equipment failure.
We get fed mush by bureaucrats every day of the week and none of it makes much common sense. But they’re oblivious to logic. Making a verbose stentorian proclamation is good for the public service career, one presumes. Because it isn’t much good for anything else.
Mandate technology that disables occupant cell phones when the vehicle is moving and watch the accident and death rates drop.
We can’t use technology to stop stupid people from killing themselves or other people ’cause crims gotz rights. Shirley you knew that? LOL
Heck if they just removed 50% of the drivers on illicit drugs, they could make a huge reduction in fatalities.
To conclude that the majority of deaths are due to defective vehicles isn’t even remotely close to reality but what amazes me is that NHTSA does not force a proper resolution by auto makers to correct known safety defects listed on the NHTSA website. How can extending a component warranty eliminate an accident when the component is documented to frequently fail, often without any notice leaving the driver helpless at highway speeds with no engine power and a loss of power steering assist? It would appear that some auto makers are able to buy favor from NHTSA regarding documented safety defects that have never been rectified.
I don’t think there’s some vast conspiracy between NHTSA and any OEM. Neither party would be capable of that much intricate skullduggery.
But it’s worth noting that we drive a lot more and fatalities have declined dramatically over the past 40 years. Sure, it can improve, but at some point you’re going to hit diminishing returns. There has to be some consideration of cost: You could drive a perfectly safe car, but it would cost a million dollars and get terrible fuel economy.
I do agree that driver training and more stringent licensing requirements are sorely needed. And REALLY restrict teenagers driving
And yet, we accept 600,000 deaths a year from Heart Disease brought on by obesity and/or smoking, the CDC says. 33,000 compared to 600,000 is telling.
According to AAA, 17,000 teens die a year in accidents brought on by texting while driving or showing off. There is no way to stop that. When Ford was having trouble with the Explorers rolling over, it was found that most deaths in those rollovers were caused by people not belted in. If they were belted in, they would be held immobile by the locked belt, and not bouncing around. Yes, they still would be hurt, but not dead.
Hi, Stuart, you have your numbers WAY off. There were about 33,000 US highway deaths in the US during the most recent years for which records are fully available, 2013. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety says 3,000 were killed in crashes involving teen drivers, a figure that also includes passengers and adults in all vehicles involved. Meanwhile, NHTSA estimates roughly one in 10 traffic fatalities is related to distracted driving. I’ve not seen numbers for “showing off,” but that is likely to be far, far less.
Here’s a link to a recent piece we posted on teens being a risk to everyone on the road:
http://www.thedetroitbureau.com/2015/05/teen-drivers-pose-a-risk-to-everyone-on-the-road/
Paul A. EIsenstein
Publisher, TheDetroitBureau.com
Some of these comments are above ignorant. I don’t need the government telling me what I can how, where, or in what configuration drive.
I don’t need a safety inspection to know my car needs to be repaired, same with an emissions test.
Too many people want no NEED someone to hold their hand and tell them what to do. Grow up, you know not to drink n drive, apply that to the rest.
You live in the United States where local, state, and federal governments create laws. Speed limit laws, seat belt laws, and car inspections are needed so people like you cannot ignore them. If you don’t adhere to or believe in motor vehicle laws, then ride a bike- and by the way don’t forget to wear a helmet- it is the law !
Marty F, people know not to drink and drive because of a MASSIVE public relations campaign involving many organizations. There actually was a time that people did not “know” this, or it wouldn’t have been as big a problem as it was (and still is).
We have another problem right now were people do not “know” that they can’t text and drive, or talk and drive, or drive 30 miles per hour faster than the rest of the traffic and not crash, or cut in front of a truck and then slam on the brakes. It’s amazing to me what people don’t know. But that they don’t know it is obvious if you watch what people do.
We need quite a bit more education on how to be safe. And the consequences of unsafe actions. Some people believe if they did something unsafe every day for the past month, that it is actually safe. But keep doing that for a lifetime, and the odds of being in a fatal or serious accident go up dramatically.
Another factor is the high speed limits now common in the western states. Texas for example commonly has 75-85 mph limits, some on highways with extensive curves and narrow shoulders. Several other states have 80 mph limits on their interstates. There is no way that most tires or vehicles are equipped to safely handle these speeds, let alone the ability of the drivers.
Hi, Jon,
While safety advocates will challenge the assertion, crash and death data simply don’t show the anticipated surge some had expected following the rise in interstate highway speeds in recent years. Generally, states have not made major jumps anywhere but on generally safe limited-access highways.
Paul A. Eisenstein
Publisher, TheDetroitBureau.com