BY CHRISTOPHER JENSEN
WHEN President Bush signed a bill that would keep millions of vehicles seriously damaged in crashes -- and potentially dangerous -- from being repaired and sold to unsuspecting buyers, consumer advocates were thrilled.
But it was George H. W. Bush, the 41st president, who signed the bill into law in 1992.
And last week, with no system in place to track those vehicles and enforce the law more than 15 years later, consumer groups responded with a blend of exasperation and amazement -- and a lawsuit.
''It is outrageous,'' said Bernard E. Brown, a lawyer in Fairway, Kan., who specializes in automotive cases. ''It is kind of wild. It is certainly a failure of government.''
The 1992 law required that a national database of stolen or badly wrecked vehicles be established. Insurance companies that wrote off cars as total losses and junkyards that received those wrecks were required to provide the vehicle's identification numbers to the government.
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Consumer advocates say that if the law is implemented it would disrupt a chain of events in which consumers are the big losers. Typically that chain starts with a vehicle so badly damaged that the insurance company decides it is not worth repairing. The junk vehicle is then sold at an auction. An unscrupulous buyer can rebuild it with an emphasis on cosmetic improvements while ignoring safety and reliability.
Implementing the law was initially the responsibility of the Department of Transportation. Dismayed by a lack of progress, Congress turned it over to the Justice Department in 1996.
A top official there, James H. Burch II, denied that there has been any federal footdragging over the last decade.
''This isn't something that has been ignored since 1997,'' Mr. Burch, deputy director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance, said. ''Things have been done.''
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Part of the 1992 law has been implemented. Called the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System, it is an effort at the national network required by the law. It was developed by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators. Not all states participate, though they are required to.
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