NHTSA drafts legislation to tighten safety standards

WASHINGTON (March 29)—Tire makers would have a five-year obligation after manufacture to recall defective tires, instead of the current three years, under draft legislation submitted to Congress by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The bill also would extend auto makers´ recall obligation to 10 years from eight; require all tire, auto and parts manufacturers to test their products or perform engineering analyses before they could certify them as meeting federal safety standards; and raise the maximum daily civil penalty to $5,000 and a $4 million total from the current $1,000 per day and $800,000 total.