DOT touts handling of car seat recall

The Department of Transportation (DOT) is touting its handling of a recall that has affected 6 million baby car seats ahead of a confirmation hearing for President Obama’s highway safety chief nominee. 

The agency has come under fire this year for his failure to spot problems at auto companies like General Motors and airbag manufacturer Takata until massive recalls were announced, and lawmakers have promised to grill the highway safety pick about both cases this week. 

The Transportation Department said Tuesday in a pre-emptive blog post on its website that officials acted quickly in the case of the recall of car seats that were manufactured by Philadelphia-based Graco. 

“In August, after continued pressure from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, child safety seat manufacturer Graco recalled over 6 million car seats,” the agency wrote. “It was the largest recall of its kind in U.S. history.” 

The Graco car seats have been found to have faulty buckles that result in children becoming locked into their car seats. 

The recall followed earlier problems in 2014 with defective ignition switches that were found in about 2 million GM cars and faulty Takata airbags that have been resulted in recalls of about 8 million cars. 

Lawmakers have sharply criticized the highway safety agency for relying on auto companies to self-report problems with their vehicles and parts. 

The agency has defended its handling of both the GM and Takata recalls, arguing that regulators sprung into action as soon as they were notified of problems in both cases. 

The Transportation Department said Tuesday that it is considering levying a fine of up to $35 million, if it finds out that Graco did not properly follow regulations when it was making its popular car seats, which is similar to its punishment of GM earlier this year.  

“Child seats serve one purpose — to keep our children safe from harm during a crash and its aftermath,” the agency wrote. “When you purchase a car seat, you’re trusting that a company’s seats will fulfill that purpose. Betraying that trust by skirting the obligation to report safety issues is not inconsequential.” 

The highway safety agency said it would be harder to track down Graco product owners than it is normally to identify people who drive recalled cars because car seat registration is typically voluntary in most states. 

“NHTSA estimates that only about 40 percent of recalled car seats are ever actually repaired,” the agency wrote. “That’s not nearly the rate of repairs for recalled cars (75 percent), and it presents a significant safety challenge.” 

The Transportation Department said it was doing whatever it could to increase awareness about the Graco recall, however. 

“That’s why NHTSA devoted much of its Child Passenger Safety Week efforts last September to getting parents and caregivers to register their child safety seats on safercar.gov,” the agency wrote. “And it’s why authorized child safety seat inspection stations that help parents and caregivers install their seats properly also make sure to emphasize car seat registration.” 

The Senate is scheduled to hold a hearing on Wednesday on President Obama’s nominee to lead the highway safety agency, current National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) member Mark Rosekind.