Those who never read it thought it was entirely an attack on the Chevrolet Corvair and crashes involving it, but that was only the first chapter. Nader also wrote that automakers, federal transportation agencies, auto insurers, and even police investigators were blaming drivers for high fatality rates, when he thought vehicle engineering – including confusing gearshift patterns, inadequate brakes, and limited safety features – and poor road design were equally at fault.
On this day, U.S. President Richard Nixon signed the Clean Air Act into law. The Environmental Protection Agency had been created a few weeks earlier. The new law targeted vehicle emissions and included a requirement for catalytic converters, eventually mandated for the 1975 model year.