Don't let the Auto Industry Kill you

Which cars are affected by the GM recall?

General Motors' disastrous handling of its ignition problem is not isolated. GM's lead competitor, Ford, also mismanaged similar problems in the past.

GM sold millions of defective cars with ignitions that would inadvertently shut off while vehicles were in motion, causing an untold number of deaths and injuries. The problem was known within GM for years. But the company hid the facts from federal regulators and the American people.

The ignition debacle is just the latest in a long, sad string of scandals plaguing the auto industry. In a manner hauntingly similar to GM's ignition problem, Ford has mishandled defective parking brakes in their F-Series trucks.

 

 

2009 Pontiac G5 XFE X09PN_G5003

The repetitive nature of these deadly occurrences requires a muscular federal response. The government agency charged with overseeing auto safety, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, should be doing a much better job protecting the public.

In the early 1990s, Ford began utilizing self-adjusting parking brakes in their F-Series trucks to save a few dollars in service. The brakes were poorly designed and immediately began self-disengaging. With no parking brake engaged, the trucks just rolled away. This phenomenon occurred frequently, from a Ford field engineer's own truck, to Tammy Bobb's F-150, which rolled over the head of her 10-month-old son, Derick, in rural Pennsylvania. By 1999, more than 1,100 owners reported these parking brake failures to Ford, along with at least 54 injuries.

Ford assigned engineer Tim Rakowicz to the problem. After careful study, Rakowicz recommended a recall of the trucks along with an inexpensive fix. But the recall recommendation was rejected by Ford managers, apparently concerned with the cost and image problems associated with admitting the brakes were bad on the best-selling line of motor vehicles in the world.

Eventually, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration got involved. It asked Ford for answers, but Ford stalled. It requested a recall, but Ford delayed. Finally, wit

h the threat of a NHTSA lawsuit looming, Ford agreed to a recall.

The company then took six months to inform owners, during which 3-year-old Walter White of Elko, Nevada, was killed by a runaway truck. When Ford finally sent out recall letters, they understated the nature of the problem, leading owners to believe that the issue was one of convenience, not safety, thereby causing fewer trucks to come in for service.