Every year, millions of vehicles across the United States are subject to safety recalls for issues ranging from faulty airbags to brake failures. Despite extensive outreach efforts by manufacturers, more than one in five vehicles on the road, with over 58 million affected nationwide, still have open and unrepaired safety defects. This puts Pennsylvania drivers, passengers, and everyone on the road at risk. 
 

Automakers are required by federal law to identify safety defects, notify vehicle owners, and provide free repairs for the life of the vehicle. But many recalls go unresolved simply because drivers never learn about them. This is especially common when vehicles change ownership through private sales, and manufacturers lose track of current contact information. The result is a major safety gap that affects countless constituents.
 

To help close this gap, I will be introducing legislation to create a vehicle recall notification program in Pennsylvania. This program would allow PennDOT to notify vehicle owners about vehicle recalls through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration when sending notices about vehicle registration renewal.
 

Other states have already shown how effective this approach can be. In Maryland, the state’s program identified over one million open recalls among 4.3 million registered vehicles. Within one year, more than 385,000 of those recalls were resolved. By integrating recall notices into PennDOT’s regular communications, such as registration reminders, we can give our drivers the information they need in a format they trust, with minimal added cost or effort.
 

Please join me in co-sponsoring this important legislation to help make our roads safer across the Commonwealth.