It pays vehicle manufacturers to play it safe
Complying with the laws on safety that cover both employees and consumer products can be an intricate business, but one which it pays to get right.
Get it wrong and you not only risk seriously damaging your corporate reputation, losing a great deal of money and causing injury or death, you could even find yourself serving a prison sentence. In this article Neil Roche, automotive approvals expert at TRaC, highlights what manufacturers need to know.
Safety is a big issue for vehicle manufacturers and, according to European Commission figures, in 2007 15% of the products notified under RAPEX1 were motor vehicles. This made them the second largest category after toys (at 31%). Most of the motor vehicle notifications were associated with 'risks of injury' often combined with the risk of 'fire '.
The most common measures requested as a result of a notification are a ban on sales, withdrawal of a product from the market, provision of information to consumers about the risk identified, or a full product recall. However, these measures are not 100% successful in eliminating risk. In the case of motor vehicles, product recalls seem to result in around an 80% return at best. So it is clearly in the interests of both manufacturers and consumers for vehicles to be tested appropriately before being released for sale.
