A Government Motors cover-up?
The Detroit News reports,
The White House had no role in the decision to delay disclosure of a firethat broke out ina crash-tested Chevrolet Volt, the Obama administration told Congress on Friday.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administrator David Strickland said the White House had been informed in September of the fire that brokein June but didn’t ask the agency to keep the information secret.
After an initial investigation concluded that damage to the Volt battery was the cause of the June fire, NHTSA briefed Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in September, Strickland told three House Republicans in letters released Friday…
NHTSA didn’t disclose the fire took place until November, when Bloomberg News first reported it had occurred. It opened a formal defect investigation later that month when a second Volt battery pack caught fire seven days after another government test…
A House panel plans a hearing on the Volt later this month.
“We are deeply troubled by the fact that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has deliberately suppressed public knowledge of the safety risk posed by the Chevrolet Volt,” said the letter from Reps. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Reps. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Mike Kelly, R-Pa., to Strickland.
NHTSA said it rarely opens an investigation after just one incident. “Because the Volt incident involved a potential risk in newly emerging technology, NHTSA proceeded to open this investigation based only upon the results of limited test data and without waiting for data from real-world incidents,” Strickland’s letter said.