Senate panel calls NHTSA response to Toyota safety issues 'deeply troubling'

[Joanne98]

Source: LAT

The Senate Commerce Committee says the agency lacks the expertise to handle complex auto electronics systems and questions whether government officials are too cozy with the industry they oversee.

Reporting from Washington - Senators slammed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Tuesday for not identifying serious safety problems with Toyota vehicles earlier, saying that the agency does not have enough technical expertise to handle increasingly complex auto electronics systems and questioning whether government officials are too cozy with the industry they oversee.

"NHTSA's actions -- and inactions -- in the years leading up to today are deeply troubling," Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) told transportation officials at the start of his panel's hearing on the Toyota recalls. "The American people count on NHTSA to protect them and to provide them with clear and reliable safety information -- and even today that picture is not clear."

Rockefeller said NHTA officials failed to properly respond to a flood of complaints beginning in 2003 about sudden unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles. One reason, he said, was that agency employees lacked the expertise and desire to investigate if the problems were caused by the electronic throttle control system rather than with improperly installed floor mats.

"I think that NHTSA investigators . . . would rather focus on floor mats than microchips because they understand floor mats," Rockefeller said.


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-toyota-hearing3-2010mar03,0,4259968.story

[blue97keet]

1. Too many lawyers, too few engineers maybe

or the lawyers tell the engineers to shut up?

[Iowa]

2. The incompetence is staggering...

...an agency without the expertise to do the fundamentals of its job.

[Zoeisright]

3. What the FUCK do they expect after Bush decimated the agency?

I mean, come on. More than 30 years of repukes slashing every agency that PROTECTS PEOPLE, they're surprised that the agencies don't work?

Start FUNDING the agencies. For Christ's sake.

[Kingofalldems]

4. Special Prosecutor needed on this one

[iamtechus]

5. But they're doin' a heckofajob! nt

[Mopar151]

6. A legacy of the anti-car focus of EPA/DOT/NHTSA

And their insurance co. counterparts at IIHS. The kind of expertise that is needed is developed by building, modifying, and racing cars and bikes.
I will admit to bias in the matter - but EPA has been trying to "seal the hood" since the '70's. The vast majority of efforts in safety for street cars has been to reduce the need for driver skill and input, and to make all safety equipment passive in nature. Billions were spent on airbag development, and a set of racing harness, changed little since the '40's, still outperforms them - but you have to buckle them correctly, they require more structure in the car and they LOOK more confining than the 3-point belt (they are actually more comfortable - they don't chafe your neck!)
The government/insurance approach to auto safety and emissions is often cited as one of the most ornerous manifestations of the "nanny state". The expertise to sort this mess out exists - but it exists in the "pro-car" universe. It is no accident that Honda uses motorsport as a training exercise for it's new engineers, or that Ford contracts with Roush Industries for a significant part of their R&D work.

[WriteDown]

7. Well stated. nt

[Mopar151]

8. Call Gary Nelson to testify

NASCAR's tech chief.