NHTSA starts reforms after GM switches

DETROIT – The U.S. government’s auto safety agency acknowledged Friday that a deadly defect in General Motors ignition switches went unresolved for a decade because agency staffers didn’t understand air bag technology and failed to challenge the information it received from the automaker.

The mea culpa came Friday as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration outlined actions designed to make itself more aggressive in finding and solving safety problems among the 240 million cars on U.S. roadways.

It’s the first time the agency has admitted fault in failing to link the switches to a series of fatal accidents, although regulators still lay most of the blame on GM for hiding the defect. The GM switches, used in older-model small cars such as the Chevrolet Cobalt and Saturn Ion, can slip out of the run position and abruptly cut off the engine and disable the air bags. They’re responsible for at least 109 deaths and more than 200 injuries. The company recalled 2.6 million cars with the switches last year.

Staffers lacked the technical know-how to connect the changing position of the switches to the non-deployment of the air bags, NHTSA said in two reports issued Friday. They also failed to press GM when the automaker provided insufficient information about some of the crashes.

NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind said the case changed the agency’s culture. Previously, it was too trusting of data and safety theories offered by automakers, but now investigators are asking the tough questions, Rosekind said.

The review found no agency employees at fault for failing to find the GM problem. No one at NHTSA intentionally acted to hide it, Rosekind said.