By Jeff Bennett And Siobhan Hughes
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration should have
known a faulty General Motors Co. ignition switch was cutting off
power to air bags in its vehicles as early as 2007 but either
overlooked evidence or failed to grasp it, according to a
congressional report.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee report criticizes
auto-safety regulators and GM for failing to take action on the
safety defect linked to at least 19 deaths. That number is expected
to increase.
While GM was chided for not taking the appropriate measures, the
harshest criticism fell on NHTSA for not holding itself to the same
standard of accountability of those it regulates, according to the
report. It allowed an investigation of crashes involving GM cars to
continue for years without pinpointing the problem.
"NHTSA was actively trying to find the ball," NHTSA Deputy
Administrator David Friedman said during testimony before a Senate
subcommittee Tuesday. "General Motors was actively trying to hide
the ball." He cited as an example that GM had policies "not to
mention the word defect in order to shield information from
NHTSA."
The report and Senate subcommittee hearing came as GM continues
to deal with the fallout from recalling 2.6 million Chevrolet
Cobalt, Saturn Ion and other older cars earlier this year for a
problem first discovered almost 11 years earlier. Jarring or
putting too much weight on the ignition key can cause the switch to
slip from "run" to "accessory," thereby cutting power to electronic
steering and air-bag deployment.
GM said it is the company's focus is to ensure the situation
doesn't happen again.
"One of our most important goals is to put our customers' safety
and peace of mind at the core of everything we do," the auto maker
said in a statement. "We support the role that NHTSA and Congress
play in achieving that goal."
Senators Claire McCaskill (D., Mo.), Dean Heller (R-Nevada) and
Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) called on the White House and President Barack
Obama to fill the NHTSA administrator job on a permanent basis.
Mr. Friedman was the acting NHTSA administrator but his time in
the position expired. He reverted to the prior role of deputy
administrator. Mr. Friedman, who testified during the hearing,
called on the senators to provide the agency with more resources to
do its job. It also wants more authority and the ability to level
higher fines against auto makers than its current $35 million
maximum.
Senators, however, blamed NHTSA for being "asleep" on the GM
situation calling it the "NHTSA snooze." Mr. Friedman said the
agency is putting processes in place to ensure data are compiled in
one area and crash investigators are always present in meetings
where the agency is discussing vehicle problems with auto
makers.
According to the report's findings, the regulatory agency tended
to deflect blame and "get bogged down" in specific issues. The
report also said NHTSA diverts staff from their normal
responsibilities and collects a vast amount of data that is
disjointed and not shared across the entire agency.
Perhaps more surprising, the report questions whether NHTSA has
a "fundamental understanding" of how air-bag systems work. NHTSA's
lack of understanding in air-bag technology is a common theme that
has emerged from the GM switch issue. Earlier this year, the safety
agency reached out to all auto manufacturers asking them to explain
how their systems work.
"Key investigators at NHTSA lacked a fundamental understanding
of how advanced air bag systems functioned," according to the
report. "Assessments of potential defects, therefore, were based on
investigators' knowledge of previous generation air bag
systems."
Mr. Friedman said GM never informed the agency that it had
specific information showing air bags in older model cars were
designed to turn off when the ignition switch was moved from "run"
to "accessory."
The agency's biggest failure, according to the report, lies with
the NHTSA's handling of a Chevrolet Cobalt crash in Wisconsin in
2006. A subsequent investigation by a Wisconsin state trooper
revealed that the vehicle's ignition switch was in the "accessory"
position. The state trooper located a technical service
bulletin--generated by GM--that suggested the vehicle's ignition
could inadvertently turn off.
The trooper's own February 2007 crash analysis determined the
likely cause of the non-deployment of the frontal air bags was tied
to the vehicle's ignition being in the "accessory" position,
something the safety agency didn't grasp for years.
"Investigators did not recall any agency discussions regarding
the details of these reports, including the suggested link between
the ignition switch and air bag deployment," according to the
report. "The agency, instead, focused on the circumstances of the
crash based on outdated perceptions of how air bag systems
functioned. This contributed to the years of delay in identifying
this defect."
"It is tragic that the evidence was staring NHTSA in the face
and the agency didn't identify the warnings," said Rep. Fred Upton,
(R., Mich.), committee chairman, in a statement. "NHTSA exists not
just to process what the company finds, but to dig deeper. They
failed."
The agency was also faulted for not making any changes to its
internal structure while GM has taken many steps including hiring a
safety chief and intensifying its reporting process when a vehicle
problem and potential recall is discovered.
"Five months later, there is no evidence, at least publicly,
that anything has changed at the agency," according to the report.
"No one has been held accountable and no substantial changes have
been made. NHTSA and its employees admit they made mistakes but the
lack of urgency in identifying and resolving those shortcomings
raises questions about the agency's commitment to learning from
this recall."
The report concluded that the tragedy must serve as a reminder
that safety is a collective responsibility. "GM, as a company, lost
sight of this and thus failed to identify a defect that was staring
them in the face for over a decade. This was not isolated to one
individual, division or team. GM suffered from a culture of
complacency," the report said.
"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."
Write to Jeff Bennett at jeff.bennett@wsj.com and Siobhan Hughes
at siobhan.hughes@wsj.com
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