Unsafe at Any Speed
Exibit at Ford Museum, Detroit
Unsafe At Any Speed is a book by Ralph Nader, published in 1965, that documented the resistance of car companies to the introduction of safety features, like seat belts, and their general reluctance to spend money on improving safety.
One of the main examples of the book was General Motors' Chevrolet Corvair, which had a suspension that made it liable to roll over.
GM responded by a campaign of harassment on Nader, which allegedly included intimidating phone calls and efforts by GM-hired private investigators to find evidence that would discredit him. When this was made public, GM President James Roche was forced (On March 22, 1966) to appear before a Senate subcommittee, and to apologize to Nader.
The book also reveals that the road safety mantra, still used in USA, called the three Es ("Engineering, Enforcement, Education", expanded to four Es in the George W. Bush presidency with the addition of "Emergency") was created to distract attention from the real problems of vehicle safety, such as the fact that some were sold with tires that could not bear the weight of a fully loaded vehicle.
The book still has relevance today; it denounced the political meddling of the car industry to oppose new safety features, that would apply today to the debate over the mandatory fitting of air bags, in USA, or the Industry efforts by ACEA to delay the introduction of crash tests to assess vehicle front pedestrian protection in the EU.
A similar book trading on the well-known title of Nader's is Unsafe At Any Height by John Godson, discussing air safety.
Interview With Dr. Jorg Beckmann of the ETSC. "Safety experts and the motor car lobby meet head on in Brussels." TEC, Traffic Engineering and Control, Vol 44 N°7 July/August 2003 Hemming Group ISSN 0041 0683Further reading:
