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Released: July 12, 2010

Industry gets scaled back auto safety bill

Source: Ralph Vartabedian and Ken Bensinger, Los Angeles Times (Free Registration)

The sweeping legislation that grew out of Toyota Motor Corp.‘s sudden-acceleration crisis — heralded as the most important auto safety bill in a decade — has been scaled back significantly in the face of auto industry opposition.

The bill originally gave federal officials the power to levy unlimited fines against automakers for safety violations, which regulators said could have resulted in multibillion-dollar penalties. But the House version now caps fines at $200 million.

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