Auto Safety

Auto Safety

Cars are dangerous. Over 30,000 people die every year on America’s roadways, and hundreds of thousands more are injured. But before the invention of safety features like airbags, head restraints, seatbelts, and anti-lock brakes, it was far worse. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, created in 1966, established regulations that forced industry to adopt many of these features. The agency also issues recalls for defective or dangerous automobile models.

Commentary

Why We Had To Regulate The Auto Industry

July 01, 2011

By Jake Blumgart. Posted on July 1, 2011.

I recently came across an old Ralph Nader op-ed extolling the virtues of automobile safety and reminding us why government action, in this instance, was so necessary.

The occasion for Nader’s opining was the 20th anniversary of the publication of Unsafe At Any Speed (1965), a searing depiction of an auto industry with little concern for the safety of their product.  LBJ signed The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act into law a year after Nader’s book hit the shelves. A new federal agency was created to address the myriad oversights of the American auto industry: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The Big Three—General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler—were horrified by this unprecedented incursion into their domain.

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US Capitol building

Darrel Issa’s Government Handover

January 05, 2011

By Donald Cohen and Peter Dreier. Posted on Huffington Post. January 5, 2011.

Newly emboldened as chair of the House’s key investigative committee, California Cong. Darrell Issa, the conservative Republican, sent letters to more than 150 business lobby groups, asking them to identify government rules that they want eliminated.

Issa wants to hand the government over to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a who’s who of corporate America. The new Republican Congress is their opportunity to get rid of those pesky environmental laws, consumer product safety laws and even rules to prevent another Wall St. financial train wreck.

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Cry Wolf Quotes

Many of the temporary standards are unreasonable, arbitrary and technically unfeasible . . . If we can’t meet them when they are published we’ll have to close down.

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Henry Ford II, 1966.
01/01/1966 | Full Details | Law(s): National Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966

Shoulder harnesses and head rests are complete wastes of money.

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In a secretly taped meeting with Nixon, future Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca. National Archives Nixon Project.
04/27/1971 | Full Details | Law(s): National Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966, NHTSA’s Head Restraint Standard

And you can see that safety has really killed all of our business...We're not only frustrated, but, uh, we've reached the despair point.

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In a secretly taped meeting with Nixon, future Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca. National Archives Nixon Project.
04/27/1971 | Full Details | Law(s): National Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966

From a commercial standpoint in a competitive marketplace [safety devices such as the turn signal and the seat belt must be optional] until a very high proportion of the customers select the item or unless there are compelling reasons for standard installation.

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GM president Frederic G. Donner, Testimony, Subcommittee on Executive Reorganization of the Senate Committee on Government Operations.
07/13/1965 | Full Details | Law(s): National Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966
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Related Laws and Rules

Evidence

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Backgrounders & Briefs

Good Rules: Ten Stories Of Successful Regulation

Demos looks at ten laws and rules that we take for granted.

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Resources

Consumer Federation of America defends the consumer interest in fields ranging from housing and financial services to food safety. 

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is the agency that oversees auto and highway safety regulations, auto recalls, and CAFE standards.

Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety is an alliance of consumer, health and safety groups and insurance companies and agents working together to make America's roads safer.

The Center for Auto Safety was founded by Ralph Nader in 1970, and has advocated for auto safety and consumer rights ever since.

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