A REVIEW OF CRASH DATA-ANALYSIS IN A DEFECT AND RECALL INVESTIGATION OF THE GENERAL-MOTORS C K PICKUP TRUCKS/

In the process of assessing the safety of the fuel-containment system of the 1973-1987 General Motors C/K truck, the National Highway Traffi c Safety Administration and General Motors Corporation have written an d submitted numerous documents to a public file between October 1992 a nd April 1993. Five substantial reports have been issued by the Nation al Highway Traffic Safety Administration and General Motors Corporatio n describing data analysis of crashes recorded on state and federal da tabases. Both the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and G eneral Motors Corporation have used crash data, in some cases the same data, to examine the claim that a defect in the fuel system design of General Motors Corporation C/K trucks poses an unreasonable risk of d eath or injury. The comparative analysis presented in this paper demon strates how crash databases and their summary statistics can be used t o support opposed positions in a safety dispute. Understanding differe nces in the analysis is fundamental to obtaining an insight into the r ole of field crash data, including its relevance and shortcomings, in defect and recall investigations.