April 16, 2012

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s proposal to mandate brake overrides in all vehicles to reduce unintended acceleration received widespread and generally positive coverage from major wire services and newspapers. Bloomberg News (4/13, Keane) reported that NHTSA “proposed requiring cars and light trucks sold in the US to have so-called brake override features to stop a vehicle when drivers press both the brake and accelerator.” The NHTSA “proposal follows record recalls in 2009 and 2010 by Toyota…for defects that may cause unintended acceleration.”