The recently enacted Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability, and Documentation Act gives NHTSA an opportunity to improve its systems for detecting and recalling defective products. It provides NHTSA with the authority to require additional data from manufacturers and others that it can consider in determining the need to initiate an investigation. In addition, the act’s provisions requiring a comprehensive review of all standards, criteria, procedures, and methods used to open a defect or noncompliance investigation give NHTSA an opportunity to improve its processes for identifying potentially unsafe parts.

Recommendations for Executive Action

The Secretary of Transportation should direct the Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, as part of the legislatively required review, to consider taking the following actions:

• Identify additional sources of information to include in the agency’s complaint database. This might include obtaining additional data from manufacturers and insurance companies.
• Heighten consumers’ awareness of NHTSA’s complaint reporting system with the goal of increasing consumers’ participation.
• Investigate the safety of using recycled airbag systems, particularly those taken from flood-damaged vehicles, and determine if any action is appropriate concerning their use.
  
  

Agency Comments and Our Evaluation

We provided copies of a draft of this report to the Department of Transportation for its review and comment. We discussed the report with NHTSA officials, including the Associate Administrator for Safety Assurance, the acting Chief Counsel, and the Director of the Office of Defects Investigation. They emphasized that NHTSA has statutory authority to issue standards only if they would meet the need for motor vehicle safety and to seek recalls only if there is evidence that particular products made by a specific manufacturer contain a safety-related defect. They added that NHTSA has not taken action to regulate aftermarket crash parts because studies conducted to date and other data and analyses do not demonstrate that there are safety-related problems with the parts. They also maintained that NHTSA does not have statutory authority to regulate recycled airbags. They indicated that their authority over used vehicles is limited to prescribing standards applicable to used motor vehicles for the purpose of encouraging and strengthening state inspections of those vehicles. As a result, NHTSA can issue performance-based standards for used vehicle inspections, but cannot differentiate between new or used individual parts or the history of those parts. We revised this report to reflect NHTSA’s comments on its authority over recycled airbags. NHTSA also provided other technical clarifications and information, which we incorporated in the report as appropriate.