June 12, 2023 - In 2015, following a string of high-profile automobile safety issues, such as the Takata airbag recall, Congress looked to bolster the ability of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to detect auto safety concerns and protect the American public. Inspired by the massive success of whistleblower award programs in the areas of tax and securities fraud, Congress included a whistleblower award law in the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act).
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The law offers monetary awards and anti-retaliation protections to auto manufacturing whistleblowers who report "original information relating to any motor vehicle defect, noncompliance, or any violation or alleged violation … likely to cause unreasonable risk of death or serious physical injury." By incentivizing auto-manufacturer insiders to blow the whistle on safety issues, the whistleblower provisions of the FAST Act are designed to snuff out auto-safety defects before they harm the public.
In the years following the FAST Act's passage, the Department of Transportation (DOT) failed to fully implement the program. A congressionally set deadline of July 6, 2016, came and went without the DOT publishing any regulations outlining how auto safety whistleblowers can anonymously file safety reports, how whistleblowers are ensured the full protection of confidentiality, and the requirements for qualifying for monetary whistleblower rewards.
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