Nader: Auto Safety Takes Back Seat To Profits He Says Industry Calling Shots, Wants Top Regulators To Resign

Declaring the nation’s top traffic safety cops “valets” to the auto and trucking industries, Ralph Nader is calling for the resignation of Transportation Secretary Frederico Pena and two other top regulators.

Nader, 62, a longtime consumer safety advocate and now the Green Party’s presidential candidate, said Pena, Ricardo Martinez, administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and Federal Highway Administration Administrator Rodney Slater have overseen a dangerous downshift in the effort to protect drivers, passengers and pedestrians.

The case for the resignation of these three regulators, Nader said, is documented in his new analysis of the government’s traffic safety program, which comes on the 30th anniversary of the creation of NHTSA and key highway safety legislation.

The report, “Driving In Reverse: The Crash of the Successful Federal Traffic Safety Program,” suggests these regulators failed to recall dangerous vehicles, canceled and watered-down safety regulations, and “fatally bungled opportunities to de-rail” recent congressional efforts to eliminate the national speed limit and helmet use incentive laws.

The regulators have “prostrated themselves in ignominious kowtows to greedy industry lobbies,” Nader said. “NHTSA has become nothing more than a consulting firm for the auto industry.”

A NHTSA spokesman said his agency had not seen a copy of Nader’s report and could not comment. A spokesman for Pena said “the short answer is, no” he’s not going to resign.

Nader insisted his report was not politically motivated, or tied to his presidential campaign. “I’ve been on the backs of these people for 30 years,” he said.

Others disagree. “It’s grandstanding,” said Diane Steed, former NHTSA administrator under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush who now heads an auto users group funded in large part by auto makers.

Nader has long fought to improve auto safety, but in recent years, fights haven’t gone his way.

He was unable to keep Congress from ending the federal 55-mile-an-hour speed limit. He was also unsuccessful in his campaign to recall side-mounted fuel tanks in 1973-87 full-size Chevrolet and GMC trucks and faulty rear door latches in some late-model Chrysler minivans.

NHTSA has said investigations into the vehicles found no evidence of defect. And General Motors and Chrysler have defended the safety of their vehicles.

In his report, Nader says Transportation Secretary Pena and NHTSA’s Martinez backed down on the recalls because of pressure from auto makers.

But ultimately, Nader blames President Clinton.

“From day one,” Nader said, “Clinton’s attitude was ‘Don’t make waves with the auto industry.”’