According to an analysis performed by The New York Times, over 260 complaints, or about 2 per month, were filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) during the past 11 years related to GM vehicles suddenly shutting off while being driven. The report makes observers wonder why the agency didn’t pick up on a trend hidden within its own complaint files as it investigates the “timeliness” of GM’s 1.6 million-car recall related to the defective ignition switches.
This wouldn’t be the first time that the agency has been criticized for failing to recognize patters. Some might recall the infamous Ford Explorer-Firestone Tire tire fiasco brought the agency into the spotlight over a decade ago.
According to a report from USA Today, former NHTSA leader, Joan Claybrook, has asked the Department of Transportation to investigate why the agency didn’t demand a recall earlier. Now an activist, Claybrook said that the NHTSA “failed to carry out the law” by not requiring GM fix the problems earlier.
In its defense, the NHTSA stated that there wasn’t enough evidence to launch an investigation, as the 260 complaints make up only about 0.018 percent of all cars that are part of the recall.
“Regarding the recent recall of certain GM vehicles, the data available to NHTSA at the time did not contain sufficient evidence of a possible safety defect trend that would warrant the agency opening a formal investigation,” the agency said in an emailed statement to CBS MoneyWatch.
The agency’s methodology for determining the necessity of a safety investigation and possibility of a recall includes “a number of tools and techniques to gather and analyze data and look for trends”. Customer complaints are only a single source of that criteria. Other sources include early warning data, crash investigations, and industry-related websites, according to the agency.
The various developments following GM’s recall, including the  investigation undertaken by the NHTSA to determine GM’s timeliness in issuing a recall, along with the subsequent investigation of the NHTSA itself to determine the reason it hadn’t taken action sooner, most definitely doesn’t serve as consolation for the families and friends of those involved in the 31 crashes and 13 deaths linked to the defect. And according to complaints listed on the NHTSA’s database, there may have been many other close calls, as well. Some examples:
“I’m just happy my family is alive,” one driver wrote about a 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt, after its engine suddenly shut off after driving over a small rock. “I don’t think this is the first and last time this will happen, and hopefully a recall will take place before someone dies from this flaw.”
“The car stalled once this morning and then completely shut down without warning,” a woman wrote of her husband’s 2005 Cobalt, which had shut down while being driven on the highway. “My husband thought he was going to die.”
Comments
It is all numbers as you look at how many cars or trucks are built and how many deaths per car built. Then you factor in the crash and was it the root cause or was it missed or not even the root cause. it is easy to miss in some cases.
I did the math on the worse unsupported numbers and came away with .022% of one percent of all cars having a report.
Generally the government is all over this stuff if the number show a major issue. In high volume lines it is not always clear unless you have major things coming off like a wheel or a fire.
While everyone wants to bury GM and the government on this check out who they are. Lawyers, media and Safety Nazis in most cases so they are not unbiased in their reporting,
Lets face it the deaths in these cars due to drunk driving are much higher but yet these same people say nothing.
I just wish GM would make the call to replace these and move on. But then that may open them to all sorts of lawsuits legit and otherwise that would cost them much more than the few bucks to change the ignition.
This is a case even if they try to do the right thing here they can be in worse shape due to how the system works. Like I have said there is a lot more involved in dealing with things like this.
So who do I contact for a GM Cadillac 2005 with less than 65,000 that stops dead in the middle of the road for no reason and has been “repaired” by a local GM dealer, McGuire Cadillac in Woodbridge, NJ who claims that nothing is wrong with the car. My dad is 85 years old and they keep trying to sell him a new car rather than fixing it correctly. I am afraid he is going to get killed or going to kill someone else. The dealership took $800 from him for purported repairs and the car just stopped in the middle of the road just one week after these repairs. I am so frustrated. Cadillac keeps saying there is nothing wrong with the car, but there clearly is.
I HAVE HAD TWO SEPERATE VEHICLES SHOW THE FAILURE WHEN BEING DRIVEN
THE FIRST WAS A 2005 FORD FIVE HUNDRED,CRUISING AT 110 KPH THE ENGINE SHUT OFF
GOING AROUND A CURVE. I TOOK THE VEHICLE TO FORD THEY SAID IT COULD NOT HAPPEN AND THE COMPUTER ANALYSIS DID NOT SHOW ANYTHING. WELL IT HAPPENED AGAIN ANOTHER THREE TIMES I ASKED ABOUT IT IN EACH CASE,AGAIN TOLD IT COULD NOT HAPPEN AND NO REPORTS OF THIS WORLD WIDE. IASKED WHAT IF I AM PASSING
A TRUCK AND IT HAPPENS AND I GET SMASHED BY ONCOMING VEHICLE I WAS TOLD THEN THE LAWYERS WILL HAVE A CASE TO FIGHT OVER. THE OTHER CASE INVOLVED A 2008 FORD TAURUS(THE RENAMED FIVE HUNDRED) IT HAPPENED AT LEAST TWICE AGAIN WITH ME ASKING ABOUT THE PROBLEM SAME RESPONSE NO SUCH THING HAPPENING ANYWHERE SINCE IT HAS STOPPED AND I HABE GOTTEN RID OF THE VEHICLE. STILL NO WORD ON THE SITUATION WITH FORD WHY I ASK WHY ????