How America's militant consumers fight for car safety
How America's militant consumers fight for car safety was published in The Times on 1st August 1978.
This article explained how the Freedom of Information Act enabled Ralph Nader’s Center for Auto Safety in Washington DC to collect evidence from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on unsafe cars. The subsequent campaigns led to vehicle recalls so the problems could be fixed by the manufacturers improving car safety, reducing the number of accidents, saving lives and preventing injuries.
A few days after the publication of this article, Stewart was called into the Ministry of Transport to be informed that the Minister had read the article and decided that such safety issues should no longer be covered by the Official Secrets Act. The policy was reversed. In future, the Ministry would publish press releases whenever a car recall was announced.