Editor’s Note: A Bus Crash, Litigation, and a Surprising Result is a complex and extraordinary story involving crash deaths, corporate malfeasance, regulatory gaps and litigation that produced significant results – not just for the plaintiffs, but for public safety. Given the length necessary to do this story justice, The Safety Record has decided to publish it in two parts.  Following is Part II

NHTSA’s Path Forward has some refreshing acknowledgements of the agency’s problems. But it still soft-pedals why they have gone from one defect crisis to another.  It is notable what is missing: Any mention of the importance of transparency and acknowledgement of the real depth of the culture that has kept the agency from objectively investigating defects.

For example: