NEW YORK — Clarence M. Ditlow III, widely regarded as America’s foremost advocate for automotive safety, who championed seat belts, air bags, electronics to avert crashes, and campaigns to force the recall of millions of dangerously flawed motor vehicles, died Thursday night in Washington. He was 72.
His death, at George Washington University Hospital, was caused by cancer, said Daniel Becker, a friend and associate.
As head of the Center for Auto Safety, based in Washington, for 40 years, Mr. Ditlow exposed hundreds of automotive defects.
He was instrumental in forcing manufacturers to recall the Ford Pintos with infamous exploding gas tanks, Toyotas that suddenly accelerated out of control, and GM pickup trucks with sidesaddle gas tanks that blew up in collisions, killing more than 1,000 people.
With a budget less than half the cost of one General Motors Super Bowl commercial, Mr. Ditlow took on the auto industry in lawsuits that tightened standards for ignition systems, air bags, and fuel efficiency; lobbied government agencies to ban driving while texting or using cellphones; and achieved “lemon laws’’ in all 50 states that made it easier for buyers to return defective vehicles.
“He was the nightmare of the misbehaving auto industry and the dream of safety-conscious motorists,’’ Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate and Mr. Ditlow’s mentor, said in an interview in October. “He was also honest, ethical and self-effacing.’’
An engineer and lawyer, Mr. Ditlow collaborated with Nader on “The Lemon Book’’ (1980), on “The Lemon Book: Auto Rights’’ (1990) and on many safety articles. He also wrote about the tendency of some vehicles to roll over, to jump from park into reverse gear and to power off with a loss of all controls and air bags while being driven.
“When regulators sleep and auto companies place profits over safety, safety defects pile up,’’ Mr. Ditlow and Nader wrote in an Op-Ed article in The New York Times in 2014. “A record number of vehicles — more than 50 million — have been recalled this year, a result of congressional hearings and Justice Department prosecutions, which exposed a mass of deadly defects that the auto industry had concealed.’’
Mr. Ditlow never achieved the fame of Nader, whose landmark book, “Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-in Dangers of the American Automobile’’ (1965), accused car manufacturers of hiding defects at the cost of untold lives. The book also prompted Congress to create what became the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to enforce safety standards and supervise recalls.
But Mr. Ditlow carried to fruition many of the initiatives that Nader began after he and Consumers Union jointly founded the Center for Auto Safety in 1970. Mr. Ditlow, who became the center’s executive director in 1976, was instrumental, for example, in long campaigns to require that all motor vehicles have seat belts and air bags.
Over four decades, Mr. Ditlow badgered the traffic safety administration for more stringent standards, saying its leaders were often political appointees reluctant to move against the powerful auto industry.
He also became the industry’s fiercest critic, issuing scathing reports on defective vehicles and related problems ranging from child car-seat flaws to dangerously designed engine mounts.
He testified at scores of congressional hearings on safety and warranty issues, consumer protection, air pollution, and fuel economy. And he successfully pushed for myriad recalls.
There were 51 million vehicle recalls in the United States in 2015, including millions for defective Takata air bags.
In 2014, 2.6 million GM cars were recalled worldwide for a deadly ignition-switch defect; in 2013, 1.6 million Jeeps for exploding gas tanks; in 2009 and 2010, more than 10 million Toyotas for sudden acceleration.
In the 1970s, 1.5 million Ford Pintos — half of all those produced — were recalled for fuel-tank fires in rear-end collisions. In addition to millions of other recalls in the ’80s and ’90s, Mr. Ditlow and his group achieved lemon laws in all 50 states to protect consumers.
Drawn by Nader’s crusading for consumers, Mr. Ditlow, in the late ’60s, joined what the press called “Nader’s Raiders,’’ young volunteers who investigated the Federal Trade Commission and in their reports found it to be “passive’’ and “ineffective.’’
Later, Mr. Ditlow joined another Nader spinoff, the Public Interest Research Group, which lobbied for consumer protections, environmental regulations and other progressive goals. He was a lawyer for the group until 1976, when, at Nader’s behest, he took over the Center for Auto Safety.
He also served on the boards of Consumers Union and the environmental group Friends of the Earth.
Mr. Ditlow, who lived in Washington, leaves his wife, Marilyn J. Herman, and a sister.
