The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the US has launched an enquiry into how often rental car companies carry out essential repairs on vehicles that have been issued with a recall notice.

According to a statement issued by the NHTSA, the organisation is examining nearly 3 million vehicles that have been sold to rental firms in order to get “an indication of how completely and how quickly rental car fleets, in general or individually, perform necessary recall-related repairs or other remedies on the vehicles owned and then leased for use on the roadways.”

Consumer groups in the US claim that there have been incidents where drivers or passengers in rental cars have been seriously injured or even killed, because companies did not take vehicles off the road to be repaired when they were issued with a safety recall.

There is currently no law that obliges companies to have these vehicles fixed before they are rented to the next customer, but Sharon Faulkner, executive director of the American Car Rental Association insisted that most firms will respond to safety recalls quickly, by taking cars out of their fleet.

“You pull those cars and you park them,” Faulkner said. “It’s just foolish for anyone to risk a lawsuit, death or injury. It’s just stupid. You don’t do it.”

Faulkner added that car manufacturers should work harder to make sure these safety recall notices get to rental car companies quickly, as it can often take  months for paperwork to arrive.

A New York senator has urged the Federal Trade Commission to take action against rental car companies that hire out unsafe vehicles, saying; “if automotive dealers are not allowed to sell recalled vehicles without first fixing the safety issues, then rental car companies should be held to the same standard.”