Reprinted from The Safety Record, Volume 8, Issue 3, November 2011 Last month, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Office of Defects Investigation opened a Preliminary Investigation into BMW 7-Series vehicles that roll away because the electronic ignition fails to shift the vehicle into Park when the driver leaves with the key fob. The [...]

Reprinted from The Safety Record, Volume 8, Issue 3, November 2011 The DOT Office of Inspector General has found that NHTSA’s Office of Defect Investigations followed its established procedures in conducting its inquiries into Toyota Sudden Acceleration for nearly a decade, but the OIG rapped the agency for its lack of transparency and documentation.

Reprinted from The Safety Record, Volume 8, Issue 3, November 2011 New Child Dummies for Booster Seat Testing Offer Advancement – and Raise Significant Questions Acknowledging concerns about the biofidelity of the new HIII 6-year-old dummy, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued a Final Rule on Sept. 9 allowing manufacturers of child restraint systems [...]

Reprinted from The Safety Record, Volume 8, Issue 2, July 2011 Carolyne Thorne; the families of Jackie and Raechel Houck and Levi Stewart – these were not among the stakeholders interviewed by Government Accounting Office investigators in compiling their latest report on problems with automotive recalls. Yet, they are arguably among the many who are [...]

Reprinted from The Safety Record, Volume 8, Issue 2, July 2011 In August, Toyota Motor Corporation recalled 1.2 million Corolla, Corolla Matrix, and Pontiac Vibe vehicles for improperly manufactured Engine Control Modules. The problem? Cracks at solder points or on varistors on the circuit board that could cause harsh shifting, or a car that won’t [...]

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 8, Issue 2, July 2011 FMVSS 213 Child Restraint Systems is an inadequate standard with a compliance test that bears no resemblance to what happens to children in a crash, according to a slew of child safety researchers at this year’s Enhanced Safety of Vehicles Conference. Some of the [...]

Reprinted from The Safety Record, Volume 8, Issue 1, March 2011 Fuel “spit back” through the filler neck has been a longstanding problem in several Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep models, caused by the Inlet Check Valve (ICV) mounted in the fuel tank. Despite some limited recalls and at least one extended lifetime warranty, this defect, [...]

Reprinted from The Safety Record, Volume 8, Issue 1, March 2011 WASHINGTON, DC – Will the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration determine that seat heaters exceeding human burn tolerance are defective, as other public health agencies do, or will they continue to argue that not enough people have been burned?

Reprinted from The Safety Record, Volume 8, Issue 1, March 2011 WENDOVER, UTAH – Last November, as NASA’s Engineering and Safety Center was dotting the “i”s and crossing the “t”s of its “exacting” study of Toyota’s electronic throttle control, Paul VanAlfen was in a panic. The Utah man was frantically trying to disengage the cruise [...]