New Report Shows Unreported Safety Incidents in Older Cars

A new report from Bloomberg News finds automakers aren’t required to disclose any questionable accidents to the federal government for cars that are more than 10 years old. Given the average age of cars on U.S. roads is more than 11 years, that means the federal database that looks for early signs of potential safety defects — and can prompt eventual recalls — is missing incidents for nearly half the cars on the road, Bloomberg found.

Related: NHTSA Updates Recall Website After Cars.com Probe

Legislation now in Congress would lift the 10-year limit, but it’s under committee review. Today’s limit is not to say federal regulators ignore all potential issues in older cars, however. Consumers can file individual complaints on their cars to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which maintains a public database of complaints for cars dating back to 1949.

NHTSA told Bloomberg it regularly investigates defects in cars that are older than 10 years, and indeed, many of the largest recalls in 2014 — which saw a record 62 million-plus recalls — were for cars that were more than a decade old.

Click here for the full Bloomberg story.