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Government can't withhold data on serious car accidents, court rules

By Ken Bensinger, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that the government may not withhold key data on serious car accidents from the public. The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia potentially ends years of litigation over the data, and could soon put crash information collected by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration into the hands of journalists, consumer watchdogs and others. At issue are so-called Early Warning data reported to the safety administration by tire makers, car manufacturers, motorcycle companies and child-seat producers, among others. Under a provision of a 2000 law, such companies must report information on defects, injuries, deaths and damage related to their products. That law was passed largely in response to a string of rollovers involving Ford Explorers with Firestone tires that killed several hundred people and forced one of the biggest tire recalls ever. The law was intended to help regulators quickly detect potential trends in accidents related to individual products.

Full post as published by The Trade Secrets Vault on July 23, 2008 (boomark / email).