Congress Rips NHTSA Over GM Recall In New Report

A congressional report has called the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration into question for their oversight of the GM ignition recall situation. In a report, published by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce, it was revealed that the NHTSA might have been able to discover the ignition system defect as early back as 2007. The report also indicates the NHTSA didn’t posses an advanced knowledge of airbag systems and how they work. Pennsylvania congressman Tim Murphy feels GM and the NHTSA share blame for what has occurred with the vehicle part defects. He said, “NHTSA too suffered from a lack of accountability, poor information sharing, and a fundamental misunderstanding of the vehicles, all which contributed to the failure to identify and fix this deadly defect.”

On page three of the Congressional report it reads, “It was not until after GM announced a recall of these vehicles in February 2014 that NHTSA understood the connection between the ignition switch position and air bag deployment – not only in GM vehicles but all vehicles.” What the report laments is a delay on the part of the NHTSA that could have saved lives if they knew about the ignition switch connection to accidents. One issue is that of the reports they received, those for the Chevy Cobalt apparently didn’t stand out in number or irregularity enough for the NHTSA to further investigate. The last page of the Congressional report is critical of the NHTSA. It reads, “NHTSA also lacked the focus and rigor expected of a federal safety regulator. The agency’s repeated failure to identify, let alone explore, the potential defect theory related to the ignition switch — even after it was spelled out in a report the agency commissioned — is inexcusable.”

This report by congress comes exactly one day after it was announced that the faulty ignition switch in certain GM vehicles was responsible for 19 deaths. The announcement was made by Kenneth Feinberg, an attorney hired by GM, to both create a death and injury claims process and later review the submissions he has received. Feinberg has been sent 445 total death and injury claims related to the faulty ignition switches.

Is this report by congress just an attempt to blame someone else for GM’s failures or is the NHTSA at fault for not finding out about this issue? Should the government entity that oversees an industry be held responsible for lack of knowledge and lack of investigation into a large and deadly problem? Finally, will this recall impact consumer confidence in the retail automotive industry?