I 

113TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 5848 

To enhance the early warning reporting requirements for motor vehicle 

manufacturers. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

DECEMBER 11, 2014 

Mr. CARTWRIGHT (for himself and Mr. NOLAN) introduced the following bill; 

which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

To enhance the early warning reporting requirements for 

motor vehicle manufacturers. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Early Warning Report5 ing System Improvement Act of 2014’’. 

6 SEC. 2. ADDITIONAL EARLY WARNING REPORTING RE7 QUIREMENTS. 

8 Section 30166(m) of title 49, United States Code is 

9 amended— 

10 (1) in paragraph (3)(C)— 


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1 (A) by striking ‘‘The manufacturer’’ and 

2 inserting the following: 

3 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—The manufac4 turer’’; and 

5 (B) by adding at the end the following: 

6 ‘‘(ii) FATAL INCIDENTS.—If an inci7 dent described in clause (i) involves fatali8 ties, the Secretary shall require the manu9 facturer to submit, as part of its incident 

10 report— 

11 ‘‘(I) all initial claims or notice 

12 documents that notified the manufac13 turer of the incident; 

14 ‘‘(II) any police reports or other 

15 documents describing or recon16 structing the incident; and 

17 ‘‘(III) any amendments or sup18 plements to the documents described 

19 in subclause (I), except for— 

20 ‘‘(aa) medical documents 

21 and bills; 

22 ‘‘(bb) property damage in23 voices or estimates; and 

24 ‘‘(cc) documents related to 

25 damages.’’; 


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1 (2) in paragraph (4), by amending subpara2 graph (C) to read as follows: 

3 ‘‘(C) DISCLOSURE.— 

4 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—The information 

5 provided to the Secretary pursuant to this 

6 subsection— 

7 ‘‘(I) shall be disclosed publicly 

8 unless exempt from disclosure under 

9 section 552(b) of title 5; and 

10 ‘‘(II) shall be entered into the 

11 early warning reporting database in a 

12 manner that is searchable by manu13 facturer name, vehicle or equipment 

14 make and model name, model year, 

15 and type of potential defect. 

16 ‘‘(ii) PRESUMPTION.—In admin17 istering this subparagraph, the Secretary 

18 shall presume in favor of maximum public 

19 availability of information. 

20 ‘‘(iii) INAPPLICABILITY OF CONFIDEN21 TIALITY PROVISIONS.—In administering 

22 this paragraph, the confidentiality provi23 sions under section 552(b)(4) of title 5, 

24 shall not be construed to prevent the public 

25 disclosure of— 


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1 ‘‘(I) production information re2 garding passenger motor vehicles; 

3 ‘‘(II) information on incidents in4 volving death or injury; 

5 ‘‘(III) numbers of property dam6 age claims; or 

7 ‘‘(IV) aggregated numbers of 

8 consumer complaints.’’; and 

9 (3) by adding at the end the following: 

10 ‘‘(6) USE OF EARLY WARNING REPORTS.—The 

11 Secretary shall consider information gathered under 

12 this section in proceedings described in sections 

13 30118 and 30162.’’. 

14 SEC. 3. IMPROVED NATIONAL HIGHWAY TRAFFIC SAFETY 

15 ADMINISTRATION VEHICLE SAFETY DATA16 BASES. 

17 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 2 years after the 

18 date of the enactment of this Act, and after consultation 

19 with frequent users of its publicly available databases, the 

20 Secretary of Transportation (referred to in this section as 

21 the ‘‘Secretary’’) shall improve public accessibility to infor22 mation on the National Highway Traffic Safety Adminis23 tration’s publicly accessible vehicle safety databases by— 

24 (1) improving organization and functionality, 

25 including design features such as drop-down menus, 


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1 and allowing for data from all of the publicly acces2 sible vehicle safety databases to be searched, sorted, 

3 aggregated, and downloaded in a manner— 

4 (A) consistent with the public interest; and 

5 (B) that facilitates easy use by consumers; 

6 (2) providing greater consistency in presen7 tation of vehicle safety issues; 

8 (3) improving searchability about specific vehi9 cles and issues through standardization of commonly 

10 used search terms and the integration of databases 

11 to enable all to be simultaneously searched using the 

12 same keyword search function; and 

13 (4) ensuring that all documents, studies, inves14 tigations, inspections, incident reports, and other 

15 materials related to an incident that are created or 

16 obtained by the National Highway Traffic Safety 

17 Administration be made publicly available in a man18 ner that is searchable in databases by— 

19 (A) manufacturer name, vehicle or equip20 ment make and model name, and model year; 

21 (B) type of potential defect; 

22 (C) number of injuries or fatalities; and 

23 (D) any other element that the Secretary 

24 determines to be in the public interest. 


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1 (b) INSPECTION AND INVESTIGATION INFORMA2 TION.—The Secretary shall— 

3 (1) provide public notice of all inspection and 

4 investigation activities conducted by the Secretary 

5 under section 30166 of title 49, United States Code; 

6 and 

7 (2) make such notices, and notice of any en8 forcement or other action taken as a result of an in9 spection or investigation— 

10 (A) available to consumers on the Internet 

11 immediately after such notice is issued; and 

12 (B) searchable by manufacturer name, ve13 hicle or equipment make and model name, 

14 model year, system or component, and the type 

15 of inspection or investigation being conducted. 

Æ 


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