The Wall Street Journal reports that “the top federal auto-safety regulator will defend his agency before Congress on Tuesday, telling lawmakers that General Motors had “critical information” that would have helped it identify a defect earlier in the Chevrolet Cobalt and other vehicles and might have changed the agency?s course in investigating the problems.In prepared testimony, David Friedman, the acting administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said the agency is “not aware of any information” that it “failed to properly carry out its safety mission” based on the data available to it and its own processes.
Meanwhile, GM CEO Mary Barra intends to tell legislators that she has accelerated efforts to fix faulty ignition switches but still doesn?t have a reason why it took nearly a decade to initiate a recall.”
Brian Pate of SoftwareCPR notes that while not a medical device, it is a reminder of the importance of a complete and thorough complaint handling system for addressing and bringing to timely closure potential quality problems. One must consider how the analysis and investigation may appear when reviewed and scrutinized years later.