NHTSA May Mandate Brake Override on New Vehicles
March 8, 2010 - The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) may consider a rulemaking that would require all new vehicles to have brake override systems like the ones that Toyota is currently installing on new vehicles, according to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. LaHood spoke before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Trade, Science and Transportation on March 2 to answer questions in the wake of recent vehicle problems and recalls.
Brake override systems, which cut power to the engine when both the brake and accelerator pedals are depressed, can be used to combat the sudden accelerations that have been covered extensively in the news in recent weeks. Committee chairman John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV, D-W.Va., indicated that a remedy to the recent rash of problems would require "aggressive action" by both NHTSA and Toyota. Rockefeller added that legislative action might be required along with a reevaluation of the Transportation Recall Enhancement Accountability Documentation Act, and a rulemaking to require electronic data recording (EDR) devices, or "black boxes," and full access for regulators to the data available from those boxes.