New Vehicle Safety Improvement Act is poised to help car consumers

On June 2nd, a congressional subcommittee held a hearing on the massive Takata airbag recall, underscoring the importance of a new safety bill introduced earlier this year and supported by Consumer Reports.

The proposed legislation, dubbed the Vehicle Safety Improvement Act of 2015 (pdf), would, among other things:

• Make it easier for consumers to access recall and car-safety information in government databases.

• Broaden the requirement that manufacturers publicly disclose the incidence of serious or fatal injuries in vehicles they have made.

• Beef up the vehicle recalls process.

• Make it illegal for used-car dealers to sell cars on which recall repairs have not been performed.

These reforms are in part precipitated by the tortuous, years-long process of addressing issues with Takata airbags. The pyrotechnic inflators in some Takata airbags, installed in millions of cars over the past 14 years, have sometimes exploded while the airbag deployed, shooting metal shards into the cabin. Five people are thought to have been killed in the U.S., and a larger but unknown number injured, by the rupture-prone inflators.

Recalls of the inflators started with a small number of Honda automobiles in 2008, but since then the recall has been extended and enlarged at least 11 times, now covering well more than 30 million passenger vehicles made by 10 different automakers between 2001 and 2014.

The Vehicle Safety Improvement Act of 2015, authored by Representatives Jan Schakowsky of Illinois and Frank Pallone of New Jersey, seeks to address a number of shortfalls in current law, enhance congressional oversight of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and make sure more safety information is available to consumers.

Besides the bill’s sponsors and other Congressional representatives, numerous consumer-safety groups, including Consumer Reports, support the bill and laud its aims.

"Recently, millions of U.S. cars have been recalled for safety defects. Yet it's perfectly legal for auto dealers to sell defective used cars to consumers before they are repaired. This dangerous gap in federal law is one of many addressed in the Vehicle Safety Improvement Act of 2015, which the House should take up without delay," said William Wallace, policy analyst at Consumers Union, the advocacy arm of Consumer Reports.

Read "Everything you need to know about the Takata airbag recall."

Another provision would close a gap in current law that permits used-car dealers to sell cars that are under recall but not repaired. New-car dealers are already legally obliged to have any necessary recall work done before they can sell a car. Used-car buyers should have the same protection.

In the consumer information area, the Vehicle Safety Improvement Act would make it easier for car owners and others to keep abreast of safety problems identified in specific vehicles. Consumers would gain free access, for instance, to vehicle manufacturers’ communication to dealerships dealing with safety issues and repairs. Currently, NHTSA provides only cursory summaries of those Technical Service Bulletins (TSBs).

The Act would also make NHTSA’s car-safety information, including recalls and safety complaints, easier to search. The existing search system is clumsy, confusing, and hard for an ordinary consumer to use.

Broadening the reach of vehicle recalls, the Act would also set new standards for regional recalls, where consumers can get free recall repairs only if their car is registered in certain geographical areas. The Act would ultimately eliminate regional recalls but allows for recall repairs to be prioritized, where necessary, to ensure that repair resources such as new parts are supplied first to areas where the problem occurs most frequently.

These steps, among others, are designed to create systems that are less reactive and more proactive in identifying safety defects before they reach epidemic proportions.

Recent major recalls have demonstrated numerous ways to improve how automakers and regulators identify safety issues and ensure they are fixed. The Vehicle Safety Improvement Act of 2015 incorporates many of these into one compelling proposal. Consumers Union encourages members of Congress to support the legislation and for House leadership to move the bill forward.

Check for recalls on your car at ConsumerReports.org/carrecalls. TSBs can be found on the model pages.

Learn more about car safety.

—Gordon Hard

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