Early Warning Reporting System Improvement Act of 2014

Summary: Early Warning Reporting System Improvement Act of 2014 - Revises early warning reporting requirements for manufacturers of motor vehicles regarding possible defects of motor vehicles and motor vehicle equipment. Directs the Secretary of Transportation (DOT) to require a manufacturer in cases where the defect has caused a fatality to provide certain additional information as part of its report to the Secretary. Requires that information to be publicly disclosed and entered into the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) early warning reporting database. Directs the Secretary to: (1) take specified actions to improve public accessibility to information on NHTSA's public vehicle safety databases; and (2) give public notice via the internet of all inspections or investigations conducted by the Secretary to enforce a motor vehicle safety requirement or order, or that are related to a motor vehicle accident due to a possible defect.

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Early Warning Reporting System 
Improvement Act of 2014''.

SEC. 2. ADDITIONAL EARLY WARNING REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.

    Section 30166(m) of title 49, United States Code is amended--
            (1) in paragraph (3)(C)--
                    (A) by striking ``The manufacturer'' and inserting 
                the following:
                            ``(i) In general.--The manufacturer''; and
                    (B) by adding at the end the following:
                            ``(ii) Fatal incidents.--If an incident 
                        described in clause (i) involves fatalities, 
                        the Secretary shall require the manufacturer to 
                        submit, as part of its incident report--
                                    ``(I) all initial claims or notice 
                                documents that notified the 
                                manufacturer of the incident;
                                    ``(II) any police reports or other 
                                documents describing or reconstructing 
                                the incident; and
                                    ``(III) any amendments or 
                                supplements to the documents described 
                                in subclause (I), except for--
                                            ``(aa) medical documents 
                                        and bills;
                                            ``(bb) property damage 
                                        invoices or estimates; and
                                            ``(cc) documents related to 
                                        damages.'';
            (2) in paragraph (4), by amending subparagraph (C) to read 
        as follows:
                    ``(C) Disclosure.--
                            ``(i) In general.--The information provided 
                        to the Secretary pursuant to this subsection--
                                    ``(I) shall be disclosed publicly 
                                unless exempt from disclosure under 
                                section 552(b) of title 5; and
                                    ``(II) shall be entered into the 
                                early warning reporting database in a 
                                manner that is searchable by 
                                manufacturer name, vehicle or equipment 
                                make and model name, model year, and 
                                type of potential defect.
                            ``(ii) Presumption.--In administering this 
                        subparagraph, the Secretary shall presume in 
                        favor of maximum public availability of 
                        information.
                            ``(iii) Inapplicability of confidentiality 
                        provisions.--In administering this paragraph, 
                        the confidentiality provisions under section 
                        552(b)(4) of title 5, shall not be construed to 
                        prevent the public disclosure of--
                                    ``(I) production information 
                                regarding passenger motor vehicles;
                                    ``(II) information on incidents 
                                involving death or injury;
                                    ``(III) numbers of property damage 
                                claims; or
                                    ``(IV) aggregated numbers of 
                                consumer complaints.''; and
            (3) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(6) Use of early warning reports.--The Secretary shall 
        consider information gathered under this section in proceedings 
        described in sections 30118 and 30162.''.

SEC. 3. IMPROVED NATIONAL HIGHWAY TRAFFIC SAFETY ADMINISTRATION VEHICLE 
              SAFETY DATABASES.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 2 years after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, and after consultation with frequent users of 
its publicly available databases, the Secretary of Transportation 
(referred to in this section as the ``Secretary'') shall improve public 
accessibility to information on the National Highway Traffic Safety 
Administration's publicly accessible vehicle safety databases by--
            (1) improving organization and functionality, including 
        design features such as drop-down menus, and allowing for data 
        from all of the publicly accessible vehicle safety databases to 
        be searched, sorted, aggregated, and downloaded in a manner--
                    (A) consistent with the public interest; and
                    (B) that facilitates easy use by consumers;
            (2) providing greater consistency in presentation of 
        vehicle safety issues;
            (3) improving searchability about specific vehicles and 
        issues through standardization of commonly used search terms 
        and the integration of databases to enable all to be 
        simultaneously searched using the same keyword search function; 
        and
            (4) ensuring that all documents, studies, investigations, 
        inspections, incident reports, and other materials related to 
        an incident that are created or obtained by the National 
        Highway Traffic Safety Administration be made publicly 
        available in a manner that is searchable in databases by--
                    (A) manufacturer name, vehicle or equipment make 
                and model name, and model year;
                    (B) type of potential defect;
                    (C) number of injuries or fatalities; and
                    (D) any other element that the Secretary determines 
                to be in the public interest.
    (b) Inspection and Investigation Information.--The Secretary 
shall--
            (1) provide public notice of all inspection and 
        investigation activities conducted by the Secretary under 
        section 30166 of title 49, United States Code; and
            (2) make such notices, and notice of any enforcement or 
        other action taken as a result of an inspection or 
        investigation--
                    (A) available to consumers on the Internet 
                immediately after such notice is issued; and
                    (B) searchable by manufacturer name, vehicle or 
                equipment make and model name, model year, system or 
                component, and the type of inspection or investigation 
                being conducted.