Blumenthal & Markey Demand DOT Immediately Implement Long-Delayed Auto Safety Whistleblower Program Mandated by Congress
Whistleblowers have helped shed light on many recent car safety defects, including faulty Takata airbags, Hyundai and Kia engine failure and fire risks, and Volkswagen tech to cheat emission tests
[WASHINGTON, DC] – U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Edward J. Markey (D-MA), members of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, called for the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to immediately implement a long-delayed auto safety whistleblower program. Whistleblowers have played a key role in revealing several recent major auto safety defects posing high risks to consumer safety, including 69 million faulty Takata airbags, 4 million Hyundai and Kia vehicles with engine failure and fire risks, and half a million Volkswagen vehicles with technology to cheat emissions tests. A recent Wall Street Journal report highlighted the DOT’s failure to make any progress on implementing the program nearly four years after Congress mandated it.
“Over the past few years, we have observed increasingly devastating and tragic motor vehicle safety defects, which could have been prevented if the auto manufacturers did not ignore substantial safety concerns that originated during the manufacturing process,” wrote Blumenthal and Markey in a letter to DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg, recounting the deadly exploding Takata airbags which the company knew about for years. “To date, Takata’s failure to act, on what would become the largest automotive recall in U.S. history, has been responsible for over 69 million recalls, 400 injuries, and 18 deaths in the United States. However, if it were not for Kevin Fitzgerald, a Takata employee and whistleblower who reported Takata’s manipulation of testing data, the situation could have been far worse.”
The Motor Vehicle Safety Whistleblower Act, which Blumenthal and Markey co-sponsored, passed into law as part of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act in 2015. The bill incentivizes employees of auto manufacturers, suppliers, or dealerships who observe violations or other acts of noncompliance to report these illicit activities to DOT, and protects whistleblowers’ identities. The agency was required to issue regulations to implement the legislation within 18 months of enactment—or by May 4, 2017. Nearly four years later, DOT has still not set up the program.
Blumenthal and Markey pressed the agency for answers about why the deadline for the program’s implementation was missed, what the next steps are, and when the final regulations will be issued.
The full text of the letter can be found here.
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