Word: nhtsa
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Only last year, under intense Government pressure, did the company end production of the 500 and agree to an order from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to recall and replace all the tires on the road with newer 721-model radials. In May 1978, the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations determined that the failure of the tires had been the major cause or the chief contributing factor in a large number of accidents. To date those accidents have involved at least 41 deaths, about 60 injuries and hundreds of incidents of property damage. Over the six-year...
...company so far has replaced about 3 million tires, or roughly 40% of those estimated to be still in use, and NHTSA Director Joan Claybrook has charged that it is moving too slowly. Says Frank Berndt, the agency's chief counsel: "The recall has been very disappointing...
Reports TIME Washington Correspondent Jonathan Beaty, who studied hundreds of Firestone documents: "Internal Firestone corporate records turned over to the NHTSA last year show that top Firestone managers-including President Mario A. Di Federico, who has just announced his resignation-were deeply enmeshed in the several years' effort to deal with and correct the failure problems of the 500 and were, from the beginning, aware of the tire's flaws. The documents show that while Di Federico and virtually all other top executives at one time or another were receiving detailed reports about tire failure from their...
...truckload of records that the company was obliged to turn over to the NHTSA show that...
Automen do not fault Claybrook's intelligence, but they complain that her agency shoots from the hip and uses the media to publicize charges that are not retracted with the same fanfare when proved incorrect. They criticize NHTSA for yielding to pressure groups, for failing to measure costs against benefits, and for lacking enough competent staffers. Undaunted, Claybrook aims next to get the automakers to improve seat belts and to scrap their spearlike hood ornaments, which she considers dangerous...