Report: Senate confirms Mark Rosekind as new head of NHTSA

The U.S. Senate has confirmed Mark Rosekind as the new head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

Mark RosekindCourtesy photo 

DETROIT, MI - The U.S. Senate has confirmed Mark Rosekind as the new head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Automotive News reports. 

Described as an expert on human fatigue, the former NASA official and member of the National Highway Safety Board fills an empty spot left by David Strickland, who announced a year ago that he was resigning. 

Rosekind inherits a federal agency that has been tasked with overseeing unprecedented vehicle recalls, including those of a faulty General Motors ignition switch and a potentially explosive airbag supplied by Takata Corp. to 10 different automakers. 

GM's ignition switch recall, spanning 2.6 million mid-2000s-model cars, has been linked to at least 42 deaths. The faulty airbags as part of the Takata recall has been linked to five deaths and has included more than 13 million recalled vehicles in the U.S.

Rosekind will be tasked with leading the nation's top vehicle safety regulator at a time when its annual budget of $10 million for defect investigations has been stagnant for the past several years. He told lawmakers at a confirmation hearing that he aims to make NHTSA and enforcer, though Automotive News notes that any meaningful change at the agency rests on Congress passing corresponding legislation.