Auto Safety Advocates Ask For Reinvestigation Into Jeep Recalls
Safety advocates are demanding federal regulators reopen an investigation into the rear-mounted fuel tanks on the Jeep Cherokee, Grand Cherokee and Liberty.
The Center for Auto Safety said in a Feb. 19 letter to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that Jeeps remain the “most lethal” passenger vehicles, despite Fiat Chrysler’s offer to buy back the defectively designed vehicles or put a tow hitch on the back.
Fuel tank fire-related deaths might be as high as 86, the New York Times has reported. The Jeep SUV plastic tanks are attached behind the rear axle of the SUVs and are prone to exploding in rear-end collisions. The hitch is supposed to be a buffer between the gas tank and another vehicle.
NHTSA struck a deal with the automaker to create a buyback or tow hitch attachment program following several years of investigations. Consumer advocates remain unhappy with the program. They claim the federal regulator was too easy on the automaker and the deal was conducted behind closed doors with only a top NHTSA official and top executive at Fiat Chrysler present.
The Center for Auto Safety and others, including former NHTSA top administrator Joan Claybrook, have complained about Fiat Chrysler’s perceived reluctance to resolve potentially fatal issues related to their vehicles. Claybrook headed the consumer watchdog group Public Citizen after her time at NHTSA.
NHTSA has since levied a $105 million fine against Fiat Chrysler – the largest financial penalty issued by the agency – for delaying corrective actions for known defects, among other things.
Even so, the Center for Auto Safety Executive Director Clarence Ditlow senses different treatment for the automaker.
He complained in the letter that NHTSA doesn’t report other vehicle deaths in real time as it does these kind of incidents. He asked that the regulators keep a running toll and “publish Jeep rear impact fire crash deaths as they occur.”
He said deaths from other defective products are being tallied and published in real time but the Jeep injuries and deaths counts are not.
“Why the difference when Jeep rear impact fire crashes kill more consumers,” he wrote.
In April, a Georgia state court jury awarded $150 million to the family of a four-year-old who burned alive in his car seat in a Jeep after it was hit from behind. There was evidence at trial the carmaker knew about the possibility of this kind of event, according to news accounts.
A safety advocate publication ConsumerAffairs.com posted a Fiat Chrysler 2014 letter to customers about the tow hitch. Bottom line: The components are not strong enough to tow anything, so don’t try.
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