Recalls Not Repaired Endangering Us All
October, 2014
“More than 1 million GM vehicles recalled are still not fixed….
There has been at least one fatal accident involving a recalled car since the recall was announced. Lara Gass, 27, was killed in an accident on Interstate 81 in Virginia on March 18 when her Saturn crashed into a tractor trailer on a snowy road. The fire that consumed the car made it impossible to know how many keys were on her key ring, according to the state police.”
And that’s just GM recalled vehicles for the ignition switch defect.
An excellent article by Rachel Cohen addresses the larger “recalled but not repaired” problem of vehicles endangering us all – and known about by NHTSA and auto companies for years.“In the United States, about one in every six cars on the road, or 37 million vehicles, has an unfixed safety recall. These are not minor problems; in safety recalls, the manufacturer or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has determined that a car or piece of motor vehicle equipment poses an unreasonable risk to safety or fails to meet minimum safety standards. When a recall is in effect, manufacturers are legally obligated to do the repairs for free. Consumers, however, are not required to fix their car, regardless of the defect’s severity. In 2011, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found the annual recall compliance rate in the United States averages 65 percent.”
See http://prospect.org/article/road-hazard-millions-autos-us-highways-recalled-not-repaired
Lou