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White House Proposes “Stop-Sale” Power for NHTSA

The Obama administration is proposing the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration be empowered to order carmakers to stop selling vehicles with dangerous defects.
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The Obama administration is proposing the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration be empowered to order carmakers to stop selling vehicles with dangerous defects.

The so-called "imminent hazard" authority is part of a six-year $478 billion transportation funding bill sent to Congress on Monday. The measure would for the first time give NHTSA the ability to rule that a safety defect exists without requiring any input or cooperation from a carmaker.

The funding bill proposes other reforms designed to strengthen the agency's ability to respond to safety issues by:

  • Tripling the funding and double the staffing for NHTSA's defect investigation unit
  • Raising the cap on fines NHTSA can levy against carmakers from $35 million to $300 million
  • Legally requiring dealers to check for open recalls on vehicles that come in for service
  • Require recall repairs to be performed before a used car could be sold or a fleet car rented
  • Determine the feasibility of notifying owners of open recalls when they register their vehicles each year
The changes were outlined last year by the U.S Dept. of Transportation in response to withering criticism over NHTSA's failure to catch such festering safety disasters as General Motors Co.'s defective ignition switches and Takata Corp.'s exploding airbag inflators.

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