By the early 1960s, automobile safety in the United States was almost entirely unregulated. Nearly 40,000 people died on American roads each year, and the prevailing assumption in government, industry, and public discourse was that driver error was to blame. Car manufacturers designed vehicles for style, power, and marketability. Safety, in the industry's own assessment, was a sales liability.
Ralph Nader was a 31-year-old attorney when he was hired as a consultant by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then Assistant Secretary of Labor, to research automobile safety for a congressional audience. The result was Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-in Dangers of the American Automobile, published in November 1965. The book argued that the automobile industry bore direct responsibility for traffic deaths and injuries, not because drivers were reckless, but because the vehicles themselves were engineered without regard for occupant safety. Nader focused particular attention on General Motors' Chevrolet Corvair, which had been the subject of lawsuits since 1961 alleging dangerous handling and design defects. He also documented problems with other models, describing steering columns that could impale drivers on impact and exhaust systems that exposed occupants to toxic fumes.
On February 10, 1966, Nader testified before Congress for the first time. Shortly afterward, news broke that General Motors had hired private investigators to surveil him, interview his family and associates, and search for personal information that could be used to discredit him. The revelation backfired. The subsequent congressional hearing was broadcast live on national television. Unsafe at Any Speed, which had been a modest seller, became a bestseller. GM's president was compelled to apologize publicly. Nader later sued GM for harassment and invasion of privacy, settling for $425,000, which he used to fund further consumer advocacy work.
The political consequences were swift. Congress passed the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act and the Highway Safety Act in September 1966, both by overwhelming margins, establishing the first federal safety standards for American-made vehicles. The legislation required seat belts, padded steering wheels, safety glass, and other design changes, and created what eventually became the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. A 2015 federal estimate credited government-mandated design changes with saving more than 600,000 lives between 1960 and 2012.
