. >> david strickland, head of the nhtsa, testifying before congress in his agency's role in auto safety. the agency follow those words with an announcement that it will seek a fine against toyota of $16 million for failing to notify officials . starting as off is dave shepardson of "detroit news." many people saw the headline -- regulators seeking a fine of $16.40 million against toyota. the statement said "if upheld." why does it say that? >> toyota gets to formally denied decide whether it wants to appeal the fine. this is by far the largest ever find that nhtsa has sought to impose. the previous was $1 million against general motors in 2004. the amounts are symbolic, given that these are companies with hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue. $16 million is a rounding error for them. >> what happens next? have you heard from toyota? have you heard from toyota? if it goes@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is there some history of fines against auto companies? >> it was not until 2000 that fines for increased to $15 million. there are going up at the rate of inflation. with the exception of that

. >> david strickland, head of the nhtsa, testifying before congress in his agency's role in auto safety. the agency follow those words with an announcement that it will seek a fine against toyota of $16 million for failing to notify officials about the sticky pedals on its cars. we will talk about the role of nhtsa with several guests. we will include your phone calls and your twitter messages. we are going to hear from two former safety administration officials, dr. jeffrey runge, who served during the bush administration, and dr. ricardo martinez, who was nhtsa administrator for president clinton. in our last hour, we will get the auto industry perspective with dave mccurdy, and end with clarence ditlow. starting as off is dave shepardson of "detroit news." many people saw the headline -- regulators seeking a fine of $16.40 million against toyota. the statement said "if upheld." why does it say that? >> toyota gets to formally denied decide whether it wants to appeal the fine. this is by far the largest ever find that nhtsa has sought to impose. the previous was $1 million against gen

david strickland poke. here's part of that. >> chairman rush, ranking member and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the department of transportation's vision for the future of a national highway traffic safety administration and its safe -- and its important safety programs. transportation safety is department highest priority. n.h.t.s.a.'s safety programs are an interval part of addressing that priority. even before i was sworn in as administrator on january 4, i knew n.h.t.s.a.'s program worked. and they work well. we just released numbers that show a continuing dramatic reduction in the overall numbers of highway deaths. the secondary this morning released a report that projects that traffic fatalities have declined for the 15th consecutive quarter and will be 33,963 in 2009, the lowest annual level since 1954. but we must do more. the loss of more than 33,000 people represents a serious public health problem to our nation. we will not rest until

. >> david strickland, head of the nhtsa, testifying before congress in his agency's role in auto safety. the agency follow those words with an announcement that it will seek a fine against toyota of $16 million for failing to notify officials . starting as off is dave shepardson of "detroit news." many people saw the headline -- regulators seeking a fine of $16.40 million against toyota. the statement said "if upheld." why does it say that? >> toyota gets to formally denied decide whether it wants to appeal the fine. this is by far the largest ever find that nhtsa has sought to impose. the previous was $1 million against general motors in 2004. the amounts are symbolic, given that these are companies with hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue. $16 million is a rounding error for them. >> what happens next? have you heard from toyota? if it goes to court, how long would the process take? >> toyota has two weeks to respond and say they will pay the fine or challenge it. nhtsa has to decide if it is going to uphold the fine. if toyota continues to challenge it, they will go to the dis