Auto Safety Overhaul Baked by the NHTSA

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) administrator David Strickland expressed his support today for the intended review and modification of the nation's auto safety legislation, saying that such a bill should be passed by the Senate, especially considering the fact that there were no major modifications brought to the Motor Vehicle Safety act since the creation of the supervising body in 1996.

The revised bill, proposed by Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. is in fact an entirely new bill, which comprises new regulations, sets requirements for auto makers and increased penalties for failures to comply with the new regulations.

One of the major modifications brought to the act, in light of the recent problems experienced by Japanese manufacturer Toyota, is the obligation for all vehicles to be fitted with event data recorders, better known to the public as black boxes for cars, by 2015.

"If they can get it out of the Senate, the hope is to try to have the House take it up and pass it," David Strickland was quoted as saying by DetNews. "I'd love to see the (safety act) go forward. There's clearly a lot of very positive aspects of the piece of the legislation."

The new act would also allow the NHTSA to ask for vehicles which are a threat to their owners to be removed from circulation in extreme cases. The fines for the auto makers would increase from $16.4 million (the amount paid by Toyota for its irregularities) to $200 million, and the governing body would also benefit from extra funding for research.