NHTSA wants two new divisions to spot defects
Source: Detroit News
David Shepardson, The Detroit News 10:05 a.m. EST February 11, 2015
DShepardson@detroitnews.com
The new head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says he wants to create two new divisions to help spot auto safety defects earlier.
....
Rosekind said the funding would let NHTSA create a “trend analysis division so that goes to connecting the dots that everybody talks about.” NHTSA would also create a new separate specialized crash investigation group. Currently, NHTSA has a special crash investigation unit but it is part of NHTSA’s larger statistics and analysis group.
....
In late 2007, NHTSA declined to open a formal probe into hundreds of thousands of now-recalled GM cars despite the fact that a senior agency official notified superiors that at least four fatal crashes had been linked to air bag failures. The official asked for a formal review and the agency declined. At the same time, NHTSA routinely opened investigations into vehicles when nobody had been killed.
....
NHTSA's defects team has remained flat for a decade. Under the proposal, that team would initially rise from 28 to 56.5 full-time equivalent positions. It wants to hire a mathematician, two statisticians, 16 engineers and four new investigators. In total, NHTSA wants to boost its team by more than 50 positions to over 100.
Read more: http://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/2015/02/11/nhtsa-wants-two-new-divisions-spot-defects/70134418/
