Documents Will Prove that Chrysler Lied to NHTSA About Minivan Latches

07/12/96

Attorneys suing Chrysler because their clients were seriously injured when Chrysler minivan latches failed have discovered documents that show the company lied to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), withheld information, and destroyed crash test results during the NHTSA's defect investigation.

Ralph Hoar, head of an Arlington, Virginia product safety research firm that lead efforts to get the latches declared defective and recalled announced the discovery Thursday, in advance of a hearing that will review a court order that shields the documents from public view. The hearing will take place on Friday, July 12 in Palestine, Texas. Attorneys suing Chrysler are asking a Texas state court to lift the protective orders and make the documents public under provisions of Texas' "Sunshine Law."

"It is shocking to see how Chrysler so blatantly misled the government. NHTSA might have been more aggressive in addressing this problem if Chrysler had told the truth during the government's two-year investigation. As it now stands, Chrysler avoided a formal declaration that its latches are defective and is moving at a snail's pace to replace the 4.5 million defective latches," Hoar said.

In its most recent report to NHTSA, Chrysler admitted that it has replaced less than one quarter of the 4.5 million defective latches, more than a year after announcing it would replace them.

Texas attorneys E. Todd Tracy and Mikal Watts petitioned the court to lift the protective orders. "It is time the public knows the truth about how hazardous these latches are. We're counting on this court to let the truth be told because we can't count on NHTSA or Chrysler to tell the truth," Tracy said. The documents that are now hidden from public scrutiny will show:

Chrysler lied to NHTSA when it underreported, by half, the number of claims or lawsuits involving crashes in which liftgate latches were alleged to have failed. (When NHTSA asked in 1994 how many such claims Chrysler knew of, Chrysler reported 18. Chrysler employees have now acknowledged that they knew of 40 crashes at the time.)

Chrysler engaged in a selective destruction program that shredded records of more than 70 minivan crash tests conducted between 1982 and 1995.

Chrysler did not reveal to government investigators that it knew of more than 2,000 non-crash liftgate openings while minivans were being transported from factory to dealer showrooms.

Last year Hoar sued NHTSA to force the release of dramatic agency crash tests showing Chrysler minivan latch failures and crash dummy ejections. More than 40 people, mostly children, are known to have died because of latch failures, Hoar said.

Paul Dever -- The Auto Channel