WASHINGTON - After Firestone tire failures on Ford Explorers led to a national outcry over vehicle safety, Congress ordered a watchdog agency to create an early warning system for dangerous automotive defects.
With the computerized system expected to be running by spring, the automobile industry is pushing for tight restrictions on the release of the data - a measure that safety groups say could gut the reform enacted by Congress in 2000.
The early warning database is known as ARTEMIS, or Advanced Retrieval (Tire, Equipment, Motor Vehicles) Information System. It is meant to spot emerging safety problems by assembling industry data on accidents, injuries, deaths, lawsuits, safety complaints and warranty claims. Updated quarterly, it would cover vehicles and equipment, including child-safety seats.
Joan Claybrook, president of the Washington-based Public Citizen advocacy group, is among those who say ARTEMIS data should be available to everyone. It could be posted on the Internet, for example. That way, a motorist whose brakes gave out could access the manufacturer's latest information on similar problems with the same model vehicle.
But industry officials say some of the data, particularly warranty claims, could give competitors an unfair peek at a company's strengths and weaknesses. And they worry that raw information could be used to disparage a particular product.
"This data will be used to make comparative claims of superior quality, reliability and durability that are misleading and inaccurate," Lyndon Lie, General Motors Corp.'s director of product investigations, told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The information will not allow for valid comparisons among manufacturers, he said, because one company might report an engine computer problem as engine-related and another manufacturer might report it as electrical.
The NHTSA is expected to decide shortly on what will be subject to disclosure. Agency staff are being trained to use the system, and manufacturers are scheduled to begin submitting data in the spring. The final policy on disclosing information is subject to review and changes by the White House.
When President Bill Clinton signed the auto safety legislation, he pledged "maximum public availability" of information. But it has been left to the Bush administration to implement the system.
The auto safety law, known as the Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability and Documentation Act, was passed with strong bipartisan support. A congressional investigation had found that manufacturers failed to warn safety officials at the NHTSA of a pattern of problems with certain Firestone tires. Bridgestone/Firestone recalled the tires in August 2000, but the tire maker and Ford had received reports of trouble well before then.
The NHTSA also was criticized, being accused of letting consumers down. The agency failed to act on a 1998 tip from State Farm Insurance Cos., which had documented the tire failure trend from its customer claims. More than 270 people died, and at least 800 were injured in crashes blamed on failed Firestone tires.
Public Citizen's Claybrook argues that the surest way to prevent a similar debacle would be to release all the data to the public. "Early warning is the heart and soul of the TREAD Act," she said. Congress intended "to end the silence surrounding defect information, not to reinvent the culture of cloaked secrecy."
But the industry is concerned that quarterly Internet updates could turn into open season for plaintiffs' attorneys and other critics. And because most safety recalls are initiated voluntarily by manufacturers, the companies say, unbridled disclosure of sensitive information could create an adversarial atmosphere that undermines safety.
"NHTSA's ability to obtain information cooperatively from the private sector is directly related to the agency's ability to protect that information from public disclosure," the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers wrote in a filing with the agency.
The agency acknowledges that it now has much less information on safety problems than do automakers. Many consumers are unaware that they can report a problem to government investigators. But most customers do contact the manufacturer with their complaints. Companies carefully track customer complaints.
The new database would let the NHTSA tap the industry's resources, rather than continue to rely on consumer complaints.
But the automakers' alliance has asked the agency to guard information "not customarily disclosed to the public by the submitting manufacturer," or data that "would harm the competitive position of the submitting manufacturer."