Reprinted from The Safety Record, Volume 8, Issue 2, July 2011 National Highway Traffic Safety Administrator David Strickland opened the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles Conference several weeks ago on a skeptical note about Google Inc.’s fleet of automated Toyota Priuses. “More people feel that the task of driving belongs to the driver,” Strickland said. “And [...]

Reprinted from The Safety Record, Volume 7, Issue 3, November 2010 This summer, a British coroner made headlines when he determined that the death of a passenger in a rollover crash would have been averted if the vehicle’s tires hadn’t been 13 years old. Nazma Shaheen, a mother of two, died in May 2009, after [...]

Reprinted from The Safety Record, Volume 7, Issue 3, November 2010 WASHINGTON, D.C. – In an unusual move, Ford Motor Company announced that it would buy back some older model Windstars with failed rear axles. That leaves one Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) probe into corrosion complaints for the minivan closed and one to go.

Reprinted from The Safety Record, Volume 7, Issue 2, June 2010 WASHINGTON, DC – The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened an investigation into pedal entrapment involving the 2010 Ford Fusion, after receiving three complaints of accelerators pedals being trapped by accessory all-weather floor mats.

Reprinted from The Safety Record, Volume 6, Issue 5, October 2009 WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sixteen months after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into fire-prone cruise control deactivation switches, Ford Motor Company announced a recall (09V399) of 4.5 million Windstars and seven other models to inspect and repair the leaking components. The [...]

Reprinted from The Safety Record, Volume 6, Issue 2, March/April 2009 Juries in Georgia, Colorado and Texas recently delivered verdicts worth more than $46 million against Ford Motor Company and Nissan in three different defect cases. Ford lost in two separate cases involving an Explorer transmission defect and a seat-belt unlatch incident involving a Mercury [...]