33 DEAD: Do You Want To See Some ACTION On Behalf Of The U.S. Government After NHTSA's Double Whammy Of Failures?

When it comes to automotive safety, Americans rely upon the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Typically the group gets the message out about manufacturer recalls; however, it has botched up not once, but twice in a short amount of time.

This has President Obama's administration "conducting a broad review." Yeah, we've heard that before. Likely there will be an investigation, maybe a report will be spat out and then business continues on as usual.

We've seen it with the Benghazi terrorist attacks, IRS scandal, so, what will make this different?

When it comes to General Motors and its ignition switch debacle that's now claimed 29 lives, and the Takata airbag issue, which now has claimed four lives, should we apply more pressure on NHTSA to get things right? Should we expect to see some ACTION from our government?

Or, should we expect the same 'ol, same 'ol from the guys who get angry but don't actually do anything about it?

I guess this is how I feel about the whole situation:

President Barack Obama’s administration is conducting a broad review of an agency that regulates auto safety after it botched a campaign to publicize a potentially lethal air-bag defect, a U.S. official said.

The Transportation Department will determine whether the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration moves quickly enough on threats to public safety, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity at a briefing with reporters in Washington...

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TomM - 10/27/2014 9:06:31 AM

+3 Boost

Life does come with ONE guarantee - death

9000 deaths a year happen in the bathroom of a home - and yet I have not seen ANY effort by AgentOOR to get home bathrooms recalled

Traveling by train -- and even better by Bus are the safest ways of traveling - and these are also NHTSA covered - so why not just BAN cars altogether - and have people use trains and buses?

While it would be nice to think that we can legislate the imperfections of humanity out of existence - think of who is doing that legislation for your answer.

In the mean time - get a perspective - 3000 people die daily in auto crashes around the world - and virtually ALL of those are unrelated to the premature failure of safety devices. In fact - people die even when air bags employ properly. And for most years of their existence - cars did not have air bags - or seat belts. The introduction of safety devices has reduced some deaths - but when seat belts had interlocks - many people went out of their way to defeat that feature. And it is going to come back.

However - we can DIRECTLY connect increased auto accidents and fatalities with increased speed - and poor road conditions.

Now - how about a thread about reducing speeds - increasing taxes to improve road conditions - and introducing governors on cars that prevent them from reaching excessive speed. (Tongue in cheek) If we won't consider the most obvious and most effective ways to reduce accidents and deaths - then we all take our chances

ParadoX - 10/27/2014 9:41:25 AM

+3 Boost

Remember in the 90s how dangerous airbags were? Things have improved. This particular problem has been identified and will be corrected.

TomM - 10/27/2014 10:52:05 AM

+3 Boost

The point I tried to make is that it WON"T be corrected. Maybe the cause of the problem in the safety device will be corrected - but that is NOT the problem

The deaths in question MAY have had a faulty safety device as a contributing factor - but if we actually look at the circumstances of the deaths - we are likely to find additional reasons why the deaths did occur. It is likely an accident caused the deaths - and the claim that it could be prevented by a safety device is not 100%.

As manufacturers are being forced by "CAR TEST" magazines to produce cars with more and more power - if people used the car for what it is intended - and drove responsibly - there would be less deaths. We would NOT NEED anti-lock brakes if people actually kept a proper and safe distance from the car in front of them. WE would have less high speed crashes if less people actually drove at ungodly high speeds. THe root cause of the problem is NOT the safety devices - it is the people who use the cars. WE cannot "reflash" their programs. and car magazine testers regularly admit to driving at speeds beyond legal limits. They even have RACES on public streets - from coast to coast - where the drivers MUST exceed the speed limits to win.

We have the technology NOW =
WE could install in the roads a system that would force a speed limit on the cars above the concrete - so people would actually drive slower in School zones. It could also simply PREVENT a car from speeding on faster roads. ANd we CAN install a system in cars that would FORCE a safe distance between cars on the road.

I see NO demand from AgentOOR for such devices - WHY?

IF DEATHS were the paramount issue - then THE car magazines would be all for doing those things. THey would be demanded on the front pages of every one of them

And car magazines have absolutely no interest in what they would call "Big Brother". But - they certainly ALSO want to beat up manufacturers with headlines.