Automakers Push Back Against U.S. Safety Bill

WASHINGTON — The auto industry pushed back against proposed U.S. vehicle-safety legislation Thursday, urging lawmakers to kill provisions industry officials said would raise car prices and expose companies to more lawsuits, reported The Wall Street Journal.

House and Senate bills drafted in response to the Toyota Motor Corp. safety recalls would tilt the process of identifying safety defects to one that "will involve more guarded communications and second-guessing by lawyers," according to a letter signed by over a dozen auto industry trade associations.

The letter, disclosed by the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which represents most of the major U.S. and foreign car companies, was sent to Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D., W. Va.) and House Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D., Calif.), as well as each panel's ranking Republican.

Spokeswomen for Messrs. Rockefeller and Waxman couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

The letter outlines the industry's top concerns, including a $9-per-vehicle fee that would supplement funds at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and requirements to make public more vehicle-design information.

The trade groups said they are also concerned about raising the cap on civil fines for safety lapses and a provision that would allow consumers to file court appeals to try to overturn decisions by federal vehicle-safety regulators.

"It is noteworthy that motor-vehicle fatalities today are at record lows," the industry associations said, adding they want to work with lawmakers on modifying the legislation.

The safety bills have cleared the House and Senate commerce committees, but haven't faced a full vote by each chamber. The votes are expected as early as this summer.

Consumer-safety advocates and product-liability lawyers have criticized lawmakers for scaling back initial safety proposals in Congress, adding that stricter provisions are needed to prevent the safety lapses that prompted Toyota to recall more than eight million vehicles globally since last fall for sudden-acceleration concerns.

A Wall Street Journal report this week cast doubt on the cause of some of the accidents attributed to sudden acceleration in Toyota vehicles. The article said that tests by the U.S. Transportation Department found that in dozens of such crashes, the throttle was wide open and the brakes weren't engaged at the time of the crash, according to the vehicles' data recorders. That suggests the driver hit the accelerator instead of the brakes.

The Transportation Department hasn't confirmed the test results and declined to comment.