Honda & NHTSA Fail to Report Crash Deaths

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

NHTSA regularly collects data in FARS about deaths associated with each automaker.   But NHTSA does not bother to summarize fatalities and publish the results by each automaker.  So how many people died of crash injuries involving occupants of Honda vehicles (not including data on Honda motorcyclists that is attached separately) in recent years?   Randy and Alice Whitfield of Quality Control Systems Corp. kindly provided such information.  They reported that in the years 2010 – 2013 the total number of Americans who died of crash injuries as occupants in Honda passenger vehicles was 6,280 people.

One particularly important thing to note about these statistics — that NHTSA has, but will not publish — is their regularity.  Year after year!

20101,594 2011  1,536 20121,593 20131,557

Why does NHTSA not publish the data on fatalities it has by automaker?

What holds NHTSA back?   NHTSA frequently publishes fatal crash data on involvement of alcohol, restraint use (buckled), speed, age, and gender of crash victims — but not by vehicle manufacturer.  See http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812032.pdf

Data on Honda Motorcyclists’ Deaths summarized from NHTSA files are attached for the years 1982 – 2011.  In 2011, the number of Honda motorcyclist deaths were 817, i.e., occurring at an average rate of more than 2 deaths per day. These data that NHTSA has failed to publish by vehicle manufacturer for decades are important to note.  They provide deadly evidence of NHTSA captivity since Reagan was elected President.  

If NHTSA had been regularly publishing such data by automaker, there would have been a market pressure on automakers to improve the safety of their products.