Unsafe at Any Speed

IN 1965, Ralph Nader, a 31-year-old attorney, published Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-in Dangers of the American Automobile (Grossman), excoriating the Detroit, Michigan, automotive industry for its privileging of style and design over consumer safety. Nader's book eventually became a bestseller and, many believe, helped pass what became the country's first automobile safety legislation.

Nader had been interested in issues of consumer safety since he was a law school student at Harvard University and the editor of the Harvard Law Record. While editor, he published an article entitled, “American Cars: Designed for Death,” the first of several articles Nader wrote on this subject. He subsequently published articles in The Nation and in Personal Injury Annual, calling attention to Detroit's deliberate choice of making style a priority over safety.

The rising death toll from traffic accidents was also driving Congressional and governmental leaders to look at the issue of automobile safety. For years, driver error had been the sole focus in investigations of traffic accidents. Nader and others suggested, however, that the cars themselves might be[Page 844] to blame in many cases. Nader's interest in this cause attracted the attention of Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then assistant secretary of labor, who hired Nader as staff consultant for highway safety. Nader's assignment was to research and write a report on this issue for a Congressional audience.

Unsafe at Any Speed was the result of this assignment. In his book, Nader attacked the entire Detroit auto industry, but General Motors (GM) and its Chevrolet Corvair came under particular fire. The Corvair had been a controversial issue in the courts since 1961 when a woman lost an arm after her Corvair flipped over and subsequently sued GM for selling cars with unsafe steering designs. The case was settled out of court before a decision was reached, but other cases followed. In fact, by 1967 around 150 lawsuits had been filed against GM and its Corvair. Many of these were also settled out of court, but GM won several judgments in cases that actually went to trial. Nader also noted problems with other automobiles such as the Buick Roadmaster and the Ford Mustang. He described features such as steering wheels whose design could easily impale a driver in a crash, poor exhaust systems, and the unnecessary pollution produced by badly engineered cars.

Ironically, the driving public that Nader hoped to outrage with his detailed assault on Detroit virtually ignored the publication of the book until GM took a hand. Apparently worried about Nader's influence in Washington, D.C., and afraid the public might take notice of his book, GM hired private investigators to look into Nader's financial and private life in hopes of smearing his reputation, which to date had been spotless. Nader discovered the investigation and publicly denounced GM's tactics, alleging that the “investigators” had even hired several young women to lure him into a sexual liaison. Nader quickly sued GM for harassment. GM settled the court case for $425,000.

The first safety legislation was passed in 1966 with the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act and the Highway Safety Act. A range of safety standards for automobiles followed, including padded steering wheels, shoulder belts, safety glass, rear “back-up” lights, emergency flashers, and other design features. The 1966 laws also established an agency to regulate the automobile industry and protect consumers. This agency eventually became the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

...