Forest River - Fined

[tsetsaf]

http://rvdailyreport.com/industry/forest-river-facing-600000-in-fines-for-safety-violations/

Following an investigation it opened Sept. 30, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that Forest River appeared to have violated its Early Warning Reporting obligations repeatedly, The Elkhart Truth reported.

The federal regulation requires vehicle manufacturers to provide the agency with information regarding claims related to any deaths and injuries involving its vehicles, or any information regarding property damage claims, warranty claims or consumer complaints,

[MrWizard]

Accident reporting is up to the authorities and insurance companies
How is an RV MFG supposed to now about an accident involving one of their vehicles

Now forms and paperwork to be filled during mfg
That is administrative, not MFG defects

[Charlie_D_]

Skid Row Joe wrote:
It's impossible for any manufacturer to what becomes of their RVs once they're sold. Sounds to me like the RVIA should collectively countersue the Feds on this one.

Read the article again. They failed to provide reports on items they knew about. True, they may not know every detail asked for by the Feds. but they certainly knew about warranty claims and consumer complaints. Items they were supposed to report. Appears to me that they knowing stalled on some of the items reported.

[DrewE]

dodge guy wrote:
That's good! But it should be across the board. I'm sure other manuf will be fined as well. I wonder if this has anything to do with the faulty frames and brakes?!

From reading the actual article linked in the article linked here, the fine apparently was for improperly reporting (or improperly failing to report) data on some specific forms that must be filed quarterly. It's an administrative failure, not tied to any specific safety defect or recall action or such.

Forest River is laying the blame on a software vendor. It's possible that the vendor may end up at least partly responsible depending on the details of the contract with Forest River, which of course I'm not at all privy to...nor do I especially want to be.

[Skid_Row_Joe]

It's impossible for any manufacturer to what becomes of their RVs once they're sold. Sounds to me like the RVIA should collectively countersue the Feds on this one.

[wa8yxm]

There many companies in many lines of endeavor who are supposed to report "incidents" and some of them actually do.

Alas far too many cover it up.. FORD got burned over the self immolation option on their Pinto's for example.. And Lily plead "no contest" to the charge of lying to the FDA on at least one of their drugs. (And there are those among us who feel that they should be investigated on several others as well, including myself over a product I personally use).

Many toy companies (Fisher Price for eample) have gotten burned.

The list, is way, way, way, way too long to type.

[dodge_guy]

That's good! But it should be across the board. I'm sure other manuf will be fined as well. I wonder if this has anything to do with the faulty frames and brakes?!