You don't always get what you pay for at the pump

In this project by the Scripps Howard News Service, reporter Isaac Wolf investigates the chemical makeup of national gasoline brands. An independent lab test of five different national brands reveals that they "differ widely in their levels of crucial engine-cleaning detergent additives." The levels of detergent additives can impact a vehicle's engine quality as well as the environment. Although the additives are required by the Environmental Protection Agency, "some automotive and fuel experts contend the Environmental Protection Agency's minimum standard is outdated."

"A six-month examination of more than 150,000 reports filed by pilots and others in the aviation industry over the past 20 years reveals surprising and sometimes shocking safety breaches and close calls at local, regional and major airports throughout the country."  The investigation was a collaboration between members of the Investigative News Network and National Public Radio.  The NPR report can be heard here.  Data for this project was provided by the National Institute of Computer-Assisted Reporting (NICAR).

A a four-part investigation of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. (BNSF) by the Star Tribune (Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.) with ProPublica reveals a troubled railroad company.  "Over the past decade, court records show, judges around the country have disciplined BNSF after finding that the company or its lawyers broke rules aimed at ensuring fair legal proceedings in 13 cases involving collisions or workplace injuries."

A 23-story package investigates the state of travel in America uncovering a breakdown of safety systems across the board. Safety recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board are taking over 5 years to implement leaving people vulnerable from air to rail, road to sea.  This investigative package was conducted by journalism students from 11 universities participating in the Carnegie-Knight Journalism Initiative in partnership with the Center for Public Integrity. Their work is being published by MSNBC.com and The Washington Post.

A report by Kate Linebaugh, Dionne Searcey and Norihiko Shirouzu of  The Wall Street Journal reveals that a "secretive corporate culture" at Toyota kept the company from reporting and addressing safety issues in a timely manner with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. "Its silence with U.S. regulators, and other newly uncovered details from the crisis enveloping Toyota, reveal a growing rift between the Japanese auto maker and NHTSA, one of its top regulators...Its secretive corporate culture in Japan clashed with U.S. requirements that auto makers disclose safety threats, people familiar with the matter say."

In The Washington Post's continuing investigative series on lapses in subway safety, the paper reported that independent safety inspectors — banned from Metro tracks until a Post exposé in November — returned to the rails in December to assess whether the transit agency was following rules meant to protect its own workers. During the inspection, the officials were almost hit by a train that was traveling at full speed towards them with no sign of slowing. According to a report from the committee responsible for safety oversight on the Metro, the inspectors "were forced to quickly scramble out of the way to avoid being struck."

A report by Dave Tobin of The Post-Standard (Syracuse, N.Y.) shows how the Federal Aviation Administration plans to spend $11 million on a rural airstrip. Eight miles from the planned airstrip, the developers are ripping up an existing airfield that was built with public money but largely unused. "The Federal Aviation Administration has already spent $2.8 million on the project for which there is no demonstrated need, which doesn’t meet the FAA’s minimum quota for air traffic, which could hurt nearby airports, and which has been opposed by local planners and the airstrip’s neighbors in Hastings."

The Associated Press reviewed Coast Guard records and discovered more and more tugboat captains in the United States have less than one year of piloting experience. According to the article by Cain Burdeau, “A federal program to recruit more tugboat pilots may have backfired by allowing thousands of novice captains to take the helm and contributing to a 25 percent increase in the number of accidents on the nation's rivers.” In 2008, 1,754 accidents involved tugboats, barges and related vessels.

An "analysis of NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) has revealed that pilots flying Boeing 737s, the world's most widely deployed passenger aircraft, have frequently been ignoring an onboard alarm horn designed to warn of a critical loss of pressure, and thus a lack of oxygen, in the cockpit," reports Michael Fabey for Travel Weekly.  The 2005 crash of Helios Airway Flight 522, in which all 121 passengers and crew were killed,  was caused by hypoxia.

Internal Food and Drug Administration documents indicate that an FDA official overruled agency scientists and approved the sale of an imaging device for breast cancer after receiving a phone call from a Connecticut congressman. The legislator’s call and its effect on what is supposed to be a science-based approval process is only one of many of accusations in documents obtained by The New York Times regarding disputes within the Food and Drug Administration's office of device evaluation.