Two Senate Democrats unveiled a plan on Tuesday that would require automakers to share more information about fatal accidents in an effort to help federal regulators uncover defects such as the flawed General Motors ignition switch that has been linked to at least 12 deaths, the Washington Post reported yesterday. GM has said that it knew about the defective switch for more than a decade before initiating a recall last month of 1.6 million Chevrolet Cobalts and five other small models. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had been looking into the defect for years but has said it did not have enough information to order a recall. The legislation by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) would require automakers to routinely submit accident reports or other documents to the NHTSA when they learned of a fatality involving one of their vehicles. The bill would require the NHTSA, in turn, to make the information available to the public in a user-friendly, searchable database.
