The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: History and Regulations

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is a U.S. agency stemming from the Department of Transportation. Also known as the NHTSA, this agency is responsible for reducing vehicle-related injuries, deaths and crashes. In addition, the agency writes and enforces safety laws, determines the standards for fuel economy, helps to improve theft-resistance and even licenses importers and vehicle manufacturers. As you will soon see, the NHTSA actually plays a very large role in almost anything vehicle related.

The History of the NHTSA

The U.S. Government created the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration after the Department of Transportation was created in 1966, but it wasn't officially established until 1970, when the Highway Safety Act was passed. Two years later, the NHTSA's scope was expanded to include programs providing consumer information.

Since the NHTSA has been established, it has successfully increased the occupant protection of vehicles. In fact, the death rate is lower today per mile traveled than it was 50 years ago. Consumers also have a lot more information available to them on auto safety. This aspect is a combined effort between the NHTSA and another agency, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

NHTSA Safety and Importation Standards

The U.S. holds itself to different regulations on motor vehicles than the rest of the world, which follows the ECE Regulation standards. Because of this, the U.S. will not allow importation of any vehicles that are built to ECE Regulations. The only exceptions to vehicle imports in the U.S. are those that are imported for research or display purposes and even these are only short term. This harsh restriction was passed in 1988 after auto maker Mercedez Benz lobbied to eliminate the import vehicle alternative and won. However, vehicles that are 25 years or older are exempt because they are assumed to be collectibles.

NHTSA Regulations

The NHTSA manages and sets the regulations for several programs. These include the New Car Assessment Program, Corporate Average Fuel Economy Program, and Crash Test Programs, the Fatality Analysis Reporting Program, various motor vehicle programs and consumer information programs. The NHTSA met with controversy when the Corporate Average Fuel Economy program was started. The program, intended as a means to incentivize fuel-efficient vehicle production, was argued to have forced consumers to purchase vehicles that were lighter, smaller vehicles in an effort to meet the restrictions for the fuel economy program. The negativity arose with the argument that, by setting these restrictions, vehicle safety was reduced, as larger, heavier vehicles have always correlated to better safety and protect the vehicle's occupants better.

Administration and Costs of NHTSA

David Strickland was appointed in 2010 to be the NHTSA Administrator and the agency's annual budget for 2007 was $815 million. The bulk of the agency's spending is classified under the heading of driver safety. However, they do designate a small portion to vehicle safety and an even smaller portion to matters like vehicular fuel economy, as well as other environmental matters in relation to motor vehicles.

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Disclaimer

JD Law Group Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and no legal information presented at this site should be construed to be formal legal advice, or to constitute the formation of an attorney-client relationship. Any results set forth herein are based upon the facts of that particular case and do not represent a promise or guarantee.