The U.S.’s top auto-safety regulator last week demanded a
huge recall of an air bag part that is at risk of exploding during crashes. That was eight years after the government began investigating the issue, during which two people died and eight were injured.
Safety-defect investigations launched by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are becoming increasingly lengthy. Many agency probes last three and four years, well past NHTSA’s longstanding goal of a year or less, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal of publicly available data.
