Ford, Chrysler, others experienced unintended acceleration more than Toyota;

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration analysis comes under scrutiny

Jeff Green, Margaret Cronin Fisk and Angela Greiling Keane
The Columbus Dispatch
Tue, 16 Mar 2010 03:22 EDT

Federal regulators have tracked more deaths in vehicles made by Ford, Chrysler and other companies combined than by Toyota over three decades worth of reviews of unintended acceleration. The problems were often blamed on human error.

Even though Toyota's recalls have drawn widespread attention to the issue, 59 of 110 fatalities attributed to sudden acceleration in National Highway Traffic Safety Administration records occurred in vehicles made by other companies, according to data compiled by the NHTSA.

The agency has received 15,174 complaints involving unintended acceleration in the past decade and has run 141 investigations of the phenomenon since 1980, closing 112 of them without corrective action. The NHTSA's repeated conclusion that crashes occurred because drivers mistakenly stomped the accelerator became a policy position that caused investigators to take complaints of runaway vehicles less seriously than they should have, safety advocates say.

"The agency had made a determination that this was primarily a human factor, driver error, and that's outside NHTSA's purview," said Joan Claybrook, a former NHTSA administrator. "The Toyota case has brought new scrutiny to other factors, and NHTSA has to look at other causes."

Claybrook is also president emeritus of Public Citizen, a Washington-based consumer-advocacy group that has sued automakers seeking crash information.

The NHTSA, which is responsible for ensuring the safety of motor vehicles in the United States, hasn't previously disclosed the non-Toyota deaths. After Toyota's 51, Ford and Chrysler vehicles were linked to the most deaths - 20 for Ford and 12 for Chrysler.

Ford hasn't identified any specific safety trends in its vehicles, said Said Deep, a Ford spokesman. "It is the agency's obligation, if NHTSA believes it's appropriate, that they investigate it," he said.

The NHTSA death database included crashes of 56 different models from various years. Among the models generating multiple complaints were Chrysler's Jeep Grand Cherokee vehicles that took off and crashed after idling at car washes or service stations, and Ford vehicles in which the speed control allegedly failed to disengage or otherwise surged.

According to data compiled by Bloomberg News, the average time the NHTSA spent investigating reports of unintended acceleration dropped in each of the past three decades. Agency probes of the issue averaged 221 days before 1990 and 161 days in the past decade.

The NHTSA's approach was shaped by a 1989 report that agency employees prepared, before electronic systems that now guide most automotive functions were common, former staff members say. The study, addressing complaints of uncontrolled acceleration in Audi 5000 sedans, concluded that human error was often the cause.

As reports of deaths linked to acceleration mount, lawmakers and safety advocates are urging the NHTSA to drop its reliance on the 1989 report and start over. At a Feb. 23 congressional hearing, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who oversees the NHTSA, promised to renew the agency's focus on unintended acceleration and "get into the weeds" to find a solution.

The 17 recalls of passenger cars for sudden-acceleration complaints since 1980 included fixes for throttle cables that could stick and other mechanical flaws. The actions, which involved about 1.7 million vehicles of the 442 million sold over that period, didn't stop complaints of deaths or injury.

The 110 deaths attributed to bad acceleration were reported to the NHTSA by family and friends of victims, their attorneys or others.

Meanwhile yesterday, Toyota cast doubt on a California man's claim that his Prius sped out of control, saying the report doesn't fit the findings of the company's preliminary investigation.

Toyota said in a statement that the accelerator pedal was tested and found to be working normally, and a backup safety system worked properly. The automaker said the front brakes showed severe wear and damage from overheating, but the rear brakes and parking brake were in good condition.

The motorist, James Sikes, said his car raced to 94 mph on a freeway near San Diego on March 8. Sikes eventually stopped the car with help from a California Highway Patrol officer.

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/20486 ... r-Scrutiny