Report faults NHTSA for deference to automakers

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has displayed a pattern of deference to automakers it is tasked with regulating, according to a scathing report published in Monday’s New York Times.

The highway safety agency has come under fire for its response to a recall scandal involving faulty ignition switches on several mid-2000s GM models linked to more than a dozen deaths.

NHTSA issued a recall for the vehicle earlier this year, but the agency’s handling of the matter has raised questions. The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee launched a query this spring into whether NHTSA “has the capability, data, and resources to effectively monitor vehicle safety defects”

But the newspaper’s investigation detailed Monday points to a culture of deference toward automakers, finding  “a record of missteps” that goes far beyond the GM recall.

“An investigation by The New York Times into the agency’s handling of major safety defects over the past decade found that it frequently has been slow to identify problems, tentative to act and reluctant to employ its full legal powers against companies.

NHTSA officials were not immediately available for comment Monday.

The NYT’s analysis included a review of internal agency correspondence, rulemaking documents and interviews with congressional and executive branch investigators, former agency employees and auto safety experts.

The paper concluded that NHTSA didn’t take a leading role in responding to issues involving motor vehicle safety until they had reached “crisis level.”

Beyond that, the NYT raised questions about the agency’s focus.

“Not only does the agency spend about as much money rating new cars — a favorite marketing tool for automakers — as it does investigating potentially deadly manufacturing defects, but it also has been so deferential to automakers that it made a key question it poses about fatal accidents optional — a policy it is only now changing after inquiries from The Times,” the NYT’s Hillary Stout, Danielle Ivory and Rebecca R. Ruiz wrote.