New Federal Auto Safety Chief Addresses Recall, Defective Equipment Questions

The new TSA chief has been on the job for several weeks now and has a few things to get off of his chest. Apparently he knew that he was taking over a department that had a lack of financial support and was under staffed, but it appears that he did not realize how bad things were. Now, after taking stock of the situation, he has a few items that will need to be cleared up before he believes that the agency can do its job properly:

Mark Rosekind, the U.S. government’s new auto safety chief, knew all along that the agency he was taking over lacked resources and staff to do its job properly.

But after a week on the job, Rosekind says he discovered the shortages are much worse than he thought.

Rosekind, 59, who leads the beleaguered National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said Monday that solutions include more people and money, as well as better processes and innovation.

A human fatigue expert and former member of the National Transportation Safety Board, Rosekind spoke with reporters at the Detroit auto show. He says the agency got 75,000 safety complaints from the public last year, up from 45,000 in 2013. Yet it has just nine people to review the complaints and only 16 people to investigate when a problem is discovered.

Q: NHTSA didn’t act on General Motors’ defective ignition switches or exploding Takata airbags until after people were killed. What will you do to make sure that doesn’t happen again?

A: We’re looking at taking action in three areas: People, technology and our authority to deal with this. We’re already looking at the budget for 2016. We’re trying to make sure the Office of Defects Investigations has other things there. I don’t want to get into it, but our staff has proposed two new divisions and more money for a whole bunch of people, all focused on how to make sure we’re better at doing that job. The agency also supports raising the maximum fine for automakers that hide safety problems from $35 million to $300 million. New Federal Auto Safety Chief Addresses Recall, Defective Equipment Questions

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