By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — U.S. Sen. Mark Pyror, D-Ark, said today he and Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.V., have asked for expansion of an investigation into the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s handling of the Toyota recalls.
The senators are asking the Office of the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Transportation to examine whether NHTSA has a too-cozy relationship with Toyota and with the auto industry in general. Pryor is chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Insurance, and Rockefeller is chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
“Recent (news) reports indicate that NHTSA may have internal deficiencies in investigating certain safety defects, and even worse, the potential to be excessively influenced by the industry they are supposed to oversee on the public’s behalf,” the senators wrote in a letter to the inspector general.
Toyota is facing a storm of controversy over problems with its cars and trucks, including sudden unintended acceleration, that federal officials have linked to 34 deaths in the United States. Toyota has recalled more than 8.5 million vehicles worldwide.
Among other things, news reports have raised concerns about “the so-called revolving door of employees between the agency and the industry it is supposed to oversee,” Pryor and Rockefeller said in their letter.
“In some of the news reports about this, there’s an indication that Toyota maybe hired a couple of very important NHTSA former employees, and maybe the employees were able to finesse some things with NHTSA,” Pryor said today in a conference call with reporters.
Pryor told reporters he did not know whether NHTSA’s relationship with Toyota was too cozy, but the news reports “at least raise some questions in my mind.”
NHTSA has said it is investigating whether Toyota recalled defective vehicles in a timely manner.
“Our top priority is safety, and we expect that all manufacturers address automotive safety issues quickly and in a forthright manner,” NHTSA Administrator David Strickland said in a statement posted on the agency’s Web site.
NHTSA officials have been asked to testify in hearings before the Senate Commerce Committee and other committees looking into the recalls.
