How Current Issues In The Auto Industry Are Impacting Driver Safety

Several years ago, the automotive world was been gripped by the news that Volkswagen installed special software in its vehicles equipped with allegedly clean diesel engines to defeat pollution and fuel consumption testing in order to obtain better results. The furor caused by this disclosure seemed to take the scrutiny off the other problems that had been affecting the auto industry, such as the Toyota sudden acceleration issues, the GM ignition defects and recall, and the Takata exploding airbags recall. Later, it was reported in the news that Takata officials manipulated the test data for potentially defective air bag inflators both before and after the massive recalls of millions of vehicles began.

These latest problems are not unique in the auto industry but are just another set of instances in which the auto industry has failed to protect the very consumers who buy its products. Within the last 30 years or so, the list of problems, defects and recalls in the auto industry makes for a very sad commentary on the manner in which the auto industry behaves towards the motoring public. Some of the more egregious events involve many different parts of a vehicle, as noted generically below:

• SUV instability and rollovers
• Defective tires
• Lap belt-only systems without shoulder belts
• Motorized seat belts that provide less protection than active seat belts
• In-the-door seat belts that fail when the door comes open during a crash
• Rip stitching web loops in seat belts that cause excessive slack and reduce seat belt performance
• Seat belt buckles that have unintended openings
• Unlimited seat belt retractor load limiters, which essentially create the same problems as the web loops
• Seat backs of insufficient strength that collapse in rear-end crashes
• Roof structures of insufficient strength that crush during rollovers
• Boosters with shields child seats that fail to restrain and protect children
• Lack of structural seat side support that creates severe problems in certain types of collisions
• Lack of cargo retention in the trunk area of vehicles
• Vehicles with high star ratings that have hidden safety defects just outside the reach of government testing
• Vehicles lacking essential safety features that are readily available and necessary, such as side curtain airbags or rollover sensing
• Ineffective restraint systems that fail to protect occupants

And the list goes on. Clearly, this history shows that the auto industry will not always do what’s best for the consumer and public safety.