WASHINGTON — The community’s supremacy auto protection regulator is failing to finish weakness investigations and add similar paperwork in a well timed way, doubtlessly proscribing its skill to handle “rapidly evolving and severe” dangers to motorists, a central authority audit discovered.
In a file exempt Wednesday by means of the U.S. Transportation Branch’s Workplace of Inspector Common, auditors reviewed a pattern of investigations performed in 2018, 2019 and 2021 to decide whether or not the company has sufficient gear, processes and sources to probe and determine protection defects. The audit was once performed between Might 2021 and March 2023.
In spite of efforts to restructure its administrative center, modernize its knowledge techniques and give a boost to its investigative processes, NHTSA’s Workplace of Defects Investigation does now not meet its inner points in time for investigations and depends on legacy knowledge techniques that hinder its skill to habits weakness research, in keeping with the file.
Moreover, the company “does not consistently document information used for investigating and identifying potential safety defects or follow its issue escalation processes for opening investigations,” the file stated.
NHTSA’s goal for finishing a initial analysis or recall question is 120 days upcoming the investigation’s opening, time an engineering research — an upgraded protection probe and a step sooner than the company seeks a conceivable recall — is twelve months upcoming.
Of the 27 investigations within the 2018-19 pattern, 26 (96 %) didn’t meet the company’s inner points in time, auditors discovered. On moderate, initial opinions spent 617 days evident and engineering analyses spent 1,001 days evident.
Of the 8 investigations within the 2021 pattern, seven (just about 88 %) didn’t meet the points in time. On moderate, initial opinions and engineering analyses spent 296 and 307 days evident, respectively.
Consistent with company workforce and control, the delays had been brought about partially by means of restricted sources amid an “overwhelming increase in correspondence” in addition to control’s decision-making, commendation procedure and documentation assessment.
Auditors additionally stated the company has now not built-in investigations, recollects or producer communications right into a centralized knowledge control gadget, and that it does now not at all times report key documentation in its investigative recordsdata when inspecting defects, as required by means of federal legislation.
Of the 24 appropriate investigations within the 2018-19 pattern, 22 recordsdata — starting from knowledge request letters to case briefing paperwork — had been lacking, auditors discovered.
In all 8 of the investigations within the 2021 pattern, auditors discovered NHTSA didn’t observe written procedures.
In a single example, “an investigator’s notes from quarterly meetings with manufacturers were only recorded in handwritten notes inaccessible to other investigators,” the file stated. “Therefore, other investigators could not determine what occurred in those meetings, and the manufacturer did not take action.”
