CAS Sued DOT Secretary Foxx

The Center for Automotive Safety, an automotive safety group claimed the U.S. Department of Transportation has been in violation of the Congressional mandate in the “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21). The mandate, put into effect on July 6, 2012, requires the DOT to post dealer technical service bulletins along with an index to them on the DOT website. In response to this violation, CAS sued DOT Secretary Foxx.

The Center for Automotive Safety, an automotive safety group claimed the U.S. Department of Transportation has been in violation of the Congressional mandate in the “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21). The mandate, put into effect on July 6, 2012, requires the DOT to post dealer technical service bulletins along with an index to them on the DOT website. In response to this violation, CAS sued DOT Secretary Foxx.

The mandate reads, in part, “the Secretary shall make available on a publicly accessible Internet website, a true or representative copy of each communication to the manufacturer’s dealers or to owners or purchasers of a motor vehicle or replacement equipment produced by the manufacturer about a defect or noncompliance with a motor vehicle safety standard prescribed under this chapter in a vehicle or equipment that is sold or serviced.”

The index, the purpose of which is to make the bulletins easy to find, is described under MAP-21 as “an index to each communication, which–

1. identifies the make, model, and model year of the affected vehicles;
2. includes a concise summary of the subject matter of the communication; and
3. shall be made available by the Secretary to the public on the Internet in a searchable format.”

According to CAS’ claim, the DOT has done neither.

CAS Executive Director Clarence Ditlow said, “DOT failure to implement the law costs consumers money for repairs that covered by Service Bulletins and endangers their lives by withholding Service Bulletins that disclosures defects that can cause crashes, deaths and injuries. Today the Center for Auto Safety filed suit against DOT Secretary Foxx to force the Secretary to do what the law so clearly requires.  This is yet another example of where voluntary and cooperative action by the auto industry so praised by Secretary Foxx fails.”

Adina Rosenbaum of the Washington DC-based Public Citizen Litigation Group represents CAS in the suit. You can read the complaint here.