ABSTRACT
In November 1965, Ralf Nader published Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-in Dangers of the American Automobile.
The chief target of the book was General Motors’ ‘sporty’ Corvair, whose faulty rear suspension system made it possible to skid violently and roll over. More generally, Nader’s book documented how the US auto industry were willing to subordinate safety to style and marketing concerns. The main cause of car injuries, Nader demonstrated, was not the ‘nut behind the wheel’ that the auto industry liked to blame, but the inherent engineering and design deficiencies of the motor vehicle that was woefully uncrashworthy.
