Some problems — gun violence, educational inequity, intergenerational poverty — are so complex, so fraught with social, psychological, economic and historical considerations that addressing them requires endless study, debate, trial, error, investment, divestment, soul searching, compromise and resilience.
This is not one of those problems.
There certainly is no single, crystal-clear path to getting unsafe vehicles off the streets, but there certainly are ways to improve rates of repair on vehicles that have been recalled for serious safety hazards — including exploding airbags and other severe defects that have taken lives and limbs.
Michigan’s own lawmakers, automakers and rule makers should be leading the way toward those solutions.
Free Press investigative reporter Matt Dolan, in a comprehensive package of stories and data visuals published last month, uncovered all the ways the current system has failed car owners, and many ways automakers and government entities could get better at notifying drivers and successfully addressing dangerous defects.
Ralph Nader, the renowned consumer advocate who got the nation to start taking vehicle safety seriously in the 1970s and helped force mandatory seat belts, air bags and other safety mechanisms on the auto industry, told Dolan the “whole recall system has been in shambles for decades.”
Reasonable solutions
Tens of millions of vehicles are recalled every year, but millions remain on roads without getting fixed.
The annual repair rate rarely exceeds 65%. And while problems in about 90% of recalled vehicles up to three years old have been addressed, fewer than 50% of those eight years or older have been fixed, Dolan found.
That means more of those who rely on used vehicles are more likely to be driving cars and trucks that could injure or even kill them.
That means lower income families — and middle class families who just can’t spring for newer cars anymore — face greater risks of having airbags explode in their faces, or being run over by their own SUVs with unaddressed “park-to-reverse” defects that could be fixed with simple software updates.
And the number of Americans in the used car market is growing.
With vehicle prices, interest rates and insurance premiums as high as they are, the average age of vehicles in use is at an all-time high — more than 12 years old, Dolan reported.
The last thing in the world that low-income or even frugal Americans need is another hazard they’re more likely to face because of a lack of spending power.
Luckily, Dolan’s reporting identified remedies.
A number of reasonable solutions offered by safety advocates could put some real dents in this nationwide problem:
- Bar dealers from selling used cars with open recalls.
- Add email, text and in-vehicle notification to the ways recall information is provided.
- Expand the ways fixes can made by mandating, or at least encouraging, mobile repairs, remote software updates and independent or temporary repair facilities.
- Boost the availability of replacement parts.
- Develop a national vehicle database to track recall repairs.
- Encourage states to add recall notifications to vehicle registration, driver’s license, emissions and safety inspection processes.
Efforts have been made, here and there.
What’s missing is consistency.
Some automakers have tried mobile repairs and in-vehicle technology. Some states have more aggressive notification initiatives. In some cases, used car dealers might not have any trouble selling a car with an urgent “Do Not Drive” recall notice.
Without across-the-board requirements and expectations for getting defects fixed and keeping dangerous vehicles off roads, drivers will have to rely on luck and vigilance to keep them safe.
Michigan lawmakers should lead the charge
U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Ed Markey of Massachusetts have fought to ban dealers from selling used vehicles with uncorrected defects.
We’d like to see Michigan lawmakers leading that charge.
It may seem counterintuitive, with the American auto industry based here, for Michigan representatives in Congress to advocate for tighter regulations on our largest employers.
But it should be a given. A driver losing a limb in Minnesota because of a defect in an American-made vehicle is a Michigan problem.
How can Michiganders take pride in being the epicenter of the auto world if we’re standing aside while others try, and often fail, to make sure the industry we’ve invested so much in sells cars that are safe?
There’s no honor in protecting our most powerful corporations from doing more, no matter the cost, to put a stop to preventable injuries or deaths caused by faulty auto parts.
In the largest automotive recall in U.S. history, about 67 million Takata air bag inflators were recalled beginning in 2013.
The exploding airbags killed 28 people in the U.S. and injured hundreds, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The 28th death was confirmed just last week, after Honda Motor submitted new information to NHTSA on a 2018 death in Alabama that involved a Honda vehicle.
“Even minor crashes can result in exploding Takata air bags that can kill or produce life-altering, gruesome injuries,” the NHTSA says. “Older model year vehicles put their occupants at higher risk, as the age of the air bag is one of the contributing factors.”
Ford last month issued a do-not-drive advisory for 672,600 remaining Ford and Lincoln vehicles with Takata air bag inflators that were recalled and have yet to be fixed.
The air bags-turned-bombs should have been a massive wake-up call, with no expense spared to get every single one of those vehicles off the road and fixed. But in the U.S. alone, more than 6 million of those inflators have yet to be replaced or are otherwise unaccounted for, according to NHTSA.
Despite the massive scale of the problem, solving it doesn’t appear to be impossible.
There only appears to be a lack of political and industry will to tackle it wholeheartedly.
Michiganders ought to begin demanding that the best available strategies presented by the best experts on the topic be put to use.
By the way, Michiganders, check to see whether your own vehicles have outstanding recalls at nhtsa.gov/recalls.
If so, get them fixed. It’s free at your local dealership if your car is less than 15 years old. That, certainly, is one easy way to avoid disaster.
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