NHTSA Promises Recall Process Overhaul

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration admits it mishandled its investigation of defective General Motors Co. ignition switches over the last decade and promises to address its shortcomings.

The safety agency outlined its plans in a 24-page report, NHTSA's Path Forward as part of an internal review ordered by Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx last year. A second report calls for NHTSA to hire 380 new employees and increase its budget by $90 million.

NHTSA says it will improve internal communications and information sharing between its departments, increase the number of investigations and question assumptions made by its own personnel and automakers. It also plans to contact automakers to create a regulatory record of all "high-hazard" investigations prior to a recall informing manufacturers of their responsibilities to provide timely information and work with plaintiffs' lawyers to gather more information about possible defects and associated injuries and deaths.

NHTSA vows to adopt clearer rules for carmakers about the early warning reports they are required to submit about severe crashes. The agency also will require companies to offer an opinion about the cause of a crash and, if sued, provide documents related to legal settlements.

The agency aims to gain a better understanding of new and emerging technologies by working more closely with carmakers, suppliers and other experts. NHTSA's report notes that neither the agency nor GM understood that a vehicle's airbags could be disabled if the ignition switch was jostled out of the "run" position.

NHTSA promises to explore a broad range of alternate explanations (even seemingly remote ones) of a safety issue to help determine the root cause. NHTSA ignored such theories during the GM investigation.

The agency plans to implement new ways for consumers to provide crash-related information. This includes greater flexibility in how a complaint is described and making it easy for consumers to upload supporting documentation and pictures. The report also vows to periodically audit the processes companies use to look for potential safety defects. NHTSA says it will seek information from a vehicle's event data recorder and downloads from any sub-modules related to the defective part.

The agency plans to create a Safety Systems Team of outside experts to advise it, help oversee the changes and identify other improvements. NHTSA says the team will include Joseph Kolly, a former astronaut who now is director of the Office of Research and Engineering at the National Transportation Safety Board; James Bagian, director of the Center for Healthcare Engineering and Patient Safety at the University of Michigan; and J. Victor Lebacqz, a former aeronautics researcher for NASA.