NHTSA Role (or lack thereof) in Toyota's Debacle

NHTSA knew of Toyota problems - Jake Sherman - POLITICO.com

"Government regulators were warned about acceleration problems with several Toyota models as early as 2008, according to documents obtained by the House Oversight and Government Reform committee, but did not act on complaints, in at least one case citing a lack of resources."

My belief is that the NHTSA is as complicit in Toyota's problems today as is Toyota. By relegating oversight to an afterthought, the government let the people down as well as Toyota, which may have benefitted from an earlier disclosure. Had problems been dealt with in a controlled way earlier, they would have not snowballed and spiraled out of control. Oversight agencies that don't provide adequate oversight are USELESS!

You might recall who was in power through the end of 2008. They weren't exactly believers in the role of government regulation and oversight....

"Oversight" is a synonym for "overlook", isn't it?

Tom

a1a1a1 writes...My belief is that the NHTSA is as complicit in Toyota's problems today as is Toyota. By relegating oversight to an afterthought, the government let the people down as well as Toyota..........And which government was that ??? The former Bush administration who systematically dismantled all the watchdog orginasations. The only good thing about the present situation is I will be able to afford a newer Prius after all the wimps rush to abandon them.

First of all, let's remove the element of politics from this thread. The cars that are involved in Toyota's recalls are sold worldwide, under the auspices of multiple safety agencies. The real question is by none of them, NHTSA included, did any whistle-blowing.

One of the issues brought up all the time in the flurry of articles by the press is 'why has this been going on for so long without anyone cracking the whip?'

In general the regulatory agencies in the past were gutted and told to take a seat on the sidelines, business will self-regulate; banking crisis anyone? This has changed recently. New political environment and new rules to the game. Life goes on. In 20 yrs no one will remember any of this.