Bush admin trying to make car safety data secret

[n2doc]

Safety data a trade secret?
David Lazarus
Sunday, January 7, 2007



Before you buy a car, would you want to know how many complaints people had made to the manufacturer about defects, or how many warranty claims had been paid, or how many dealers had reported problems with the vehicle? Federal law says you have a right to such info. But the Bush administration and the auto industry are quietly trying to change that.

In 2000, Congress passed the Transportation, Recall Enhancement, Accountability and Documentation Act to address regulators' failure to spot defects in Firestone tires that were linked to numerous deaths. Under the act, vehicle and parts manufacturers are required to report all consumer complaints, warranty payments and dealers' field reports in the event of an injury or death involving a potentially defective product. Or they will be once the act is finally implemented after years of legal wrangling. It looks like that could soon happen -- but with significant alterations.

While the data will still go to government officials, rule changes sought by the auto industry and backed by the Bush administration would deem information like consumer complaints and warranty payments "trade secrets" and thus prevent the public from gaining access. This doesn't sit well with consumer advocates, who see public disclosure of auto-safety data as a crucial early-warning system to prevent repeats of the Firestone debacle.

"Consumers are the people who get killed or injured when vehicles are defective," said Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, a Washington watchdog group. "Everyone in America has an interest in demanding that this information be publicly available," she said. As it stands, Claybrook acknowledged, it looks like the auto industry might prevail when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issues a final ruling on the changes, perhaps later this year. "The Bush administration has pretty much closed down regulatory agencies as much as it can," she said. Claybrook ran NHTSA during the Carter administration.

more:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/01/07/BUG8KNE2811.DTL&type=business

[Deja Q]

1. Free trade vs trade secrets, this is quite amusing.

It would be called the "TREAD Act" re: Firestone too.

If all regulatory forces would be removed, does that mean it's up to the "Christian" nature of the execs to be good boys and girls?

[ashling]

2. Now this stuff was what Nader was good at n/t

[WinkyDink]

4. Oh, yes--as well as saying there is no differrence between Democrats and Republicans.

[ashling]

8. That's my point

[applegrove]

3. The markets depend on good information to work. Why does Bush hate the free markets

so much?

[n2doc]

5. Because they are incompetent

The Car and car supply Companies, instead of working to build safer and better cars, would rather take the easy way out and bribe a few officials to keep the data secret. Keeping the consumer in the dark takes less effort than testing and modifying their products. I am sure it is cheaper, overall, too. Especially with tort reform so that the inevitable lawsuits are squashed by RW Judges...Of course they could care less about all of the death and suffering their crappy products cause.

[ck4829]

6. This has far reaching and sinister implications

One of these being that if amateur investigators discover something defective about a car and expose it, they can be charged with a federal offense.

[Rex]

7. Wow. Why not rename George Bush to something more appropriate?

How bout, hmm, Corporate Tool? :eyes: