This is the text of the e-mail I recently sent to my friends and relatives, who in turn forwarded it on to their friends and relatives, and so on:
Dear Friends
I am writing to warn you about a little known, but very serious safety problem that is responsible for a number of injuries and deaths throughout the country. Today, this problem is now so widespread, that it affects roughly 1 out of every 3 households in America.
Please take a moment to read this right now, and then promptly take the appropriate action to help protect your family. It's a bit long, but the problem is a very serious one, and the information is important - it could help save someone you know from serious injury, or worse.
Please also take a moment to quickly forward this on to your friends and loved ones, and ask them to do likewise, so that they, and those they care about can also take steps to help protect their families.
It is especially important that anyone who is a parent, grandparent or other close relative of children under 8 years old receive this information, due to a separate, but related, serious safety problem that affects several million children, which is also addressed below.
Thank you for helping to quickly pass along this important information, and I hope it helps to keep you and your loved ones safe.
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First, because this E-mail is being forwarded from friend-to-friend-to-friend and so on, many of you won’t know me, so I’ll start by briefly introducing myself. My name is Jeff Richards, and back in 1994, a new company I started called The Data Source, began tracking and reporting data on recalls and safety defects involving motor vehicles, tires and child safety seats (car seats).
We were very fortunate to quickly gain the respect of the major national and local news media in our first year of operation, and I was honored to be considered by them to be an authority in the field. Much of the early attention we received was due to the reputation we quickly earned for having some of the largest and most complete, privately owned recall and safety defect databases in existence.
Almost from the day we opened, whenever there was a big recall, we were called upon for both data and quotable statements by a number of major media organizations, including: AP, UPI Radio, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The San Diego Union Tribune, and San Diego’s NBC TV affiliate, KNSD TV 7/39, to name a few.
Now, the reason I am sending out this E-mail - and asking for your help in quickly spreading the word by forwarding it on to your friends and loved ones - is to warn as many people as possible that we have a huge, and very dangerous problem in America today, because there are millions of unsafe, unfixed, recalled vehicles and car seats in use on our roads right now - and they need to be fixed, so that more people are not needlessly injured or killed.
These unsafe vehicles are ones that have been recalled due to a safety problem that could lead to an accident, and possible injury or death. What is troubling, is that these vehicles were never taken in for the critical, free repair work that would have corrected their safety problems - even though the government requires the manufacturers to do these repairs at no cost to the vehicle owners.
As a result, we now have an estimated 37 million private and commercially owned autos, SUV’s, vans, pickups and other light-duty trucks on our roads today that have been recalled, but never fixed (please note that I have purposely excluded all government owned vehicles of any type, and things like motorcycles, buses and heavy-duty trucks from this discussion).
The vehicles I am talking about here are only those types of vehicles that you and I, and our families, are riding around in every day - they’re the vehicles that we own personally, and the company vehicles that some of us drive at work. These 37 million unfixed, recalled vehicles account for just over 1 out of every 6 of all the private and commercially owned autos, SUV’s, vans, pickups and other light-duty trucks that are currently registered, and on our roads today.
Let that sink in for a minute - 1 out of every 6 has been recalled for a potentially dangerous safety problem, but not yet fixed!
It gets even more alarming when you consider that government statistics also show that the average American household now owns just over 2 vehicles, because this means that on average, someone from slightly more that 1 out of every 3 households is driving one of these unsafe vehicles – either one they own, or one they drive at work.
Think for a moment about your household, and the households of 2 of your closest relatives or friends. The odds are, that someone from one of these 3 households is driving one of these unsafe, unfixed recalled vehicles on a regular basis, without even knowing it.
As hard as it may be to believe, the main reason so many recalled vehicles go unfixed seems to be that the owners simply never hear about the recalls. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, keeps statistics on every recall, including the number of vehicles involved in the recall, and the number and percentage of them that are brought in for the mandatory free repairs offered by the manufacturers.
For many years, it has been the case that roughly 30% of all recalled vehicles are never brought in for these vital, free repairs. Since the law requires that the manufacturers do the repairs at no cost to the owners, experts believe that the only logical reason why so many owners fail to take advantage of these free repairs has to be that they simply never got word of the recalls - could any of your vehicles have been recalled, without your being aware of it?
Sadly, we also have a huge problem with millions of unsafe, recalled child safety seats (car seats) that have not been repaired, and now that the government is recommending that nearly every child under 8 years old ride in one, there are more car seats in use than ever before.
Since 1990, over 30 million child safety seats have been recalled for safety problems. However, a recent study done by NHTSA shows that only about 1 in 5 recalled car seats are ever fixed under the free repair programs that the manufacturers are required to offer. This means that only about 6 million of these car seats have ever been fixed, leaving roughly 24 million that are still unsafe, which is quite alarming.
Surely not all of these car seats are still in use, but there is no question that many of them are. Typically, when a family no longer needs a particular car seat, what usually happens is that it gets handed down to other family members or friends, or it gets donated to a charitable organization like The Salvation Army, and/or resold in places like thrift stores, second-hand stores, flea markets, swap meets and garage sales.
While nobody knows for sure exactly how many of these unsafe car seats are still being used, even if it is only 25% of them, that would mean that there are roughly 6 million small children who are needlessly at risk of an injury, or worse, simply because their parents are unaware that their car seats are unsafe, and have been recalled, but never fixed – and that is a tragedy.
To learn more about this serious safety problem, including how you can find out if you unknowingly have any of these unsafe vehicles, car seats, or tires - and what you should do if you do have any - please visit our website at http://www.UnfixedRecalls.com.
At our website, you will find more information on why this problem exists, how it has gotten so bad, and why it is likely to get worse. You will also learn how you can help insure that you are quickly made aware of any new recalls involving your vehicles, tires and car seats that might be announced in the future, to help minimize the chances of your ending up with any unfixed recalls at some point in the future.
Thank you for taking the time to read this, and for your help in getting this news out by quickly forwarding it to your friends and loved ones. Please be sure to take the next important step toward protecting yourself and your family by visiting our website, and then taking the appropriate action. I hope this information helps keep you and your loved ones safe, and again, thank you for your time, and for your help in spreading the word.
Sincerely,
Jeff Richards
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