Community Corner

Enterprise Rent-A-Car Responds to National Petition, Supports Legislation Now

Enterprise Rent-A-Car today announced its formal support for federal legislation to oversee the way car rental companies manage the safety recall process for vehicles in their fleets.

 officials stated on Thursday afternoon they now officially will join the industry in supporting federal legislation that oversees how companies, such as theirs, manage the recall process. 

about a California mother who initiated an online, social change petition through Change.org against Enterprise Rent-A-Car because company representatives were resisting proposed legislation that would require rental car companies to remove recalled vehicles from their fleets until repaired. The petitioner, Cally Houck, lost her two daughters' lives to an accident stemming from them driving a rented vehicle from Enterprise Rent-A-Car that was known to be identified for recall. 

"We share the Houck family’s goal of preventing anything like this from happening again. We hope that our efforts will include the opportunity to work with Cally Houck, the mother of Raechel and Jacqueline, who has remained so diligent in her efforts to secure legislation in this area," stated Laura Bryant, spokesperson for Enterprise Holdings in a statement emailed to Patch.

Find out what's happening in St. Peterswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

What Changed?

Within 24 hours of Houck launching the petition, she had more than 100,000 supporters. At the time of publishing this article, she has almost 129,800

Find out what's happening in St. Peterswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Bryant said ongoing discussion about this issue has occurred for the past two years—a discussion that she stated began in earnest following the resolution of a lawsuit in which Enterprise Rent-A-Car accepted responsibility for the accident that claimed the lives of Houck's daughters.

"The vehicle was under recall at the time. The tragedy of the Houck sisters’ deaths can never be undone, and all of us at Enterprise are profoundly sorry," stated Bryant in the statement.

Through the court process, Bryant said Enterprise Holdings representatives accepted responsibility for the accident. "Since the accident in 2004, Enterprise and others in our industry have made many significant changes in the process for inspecting and repairing recalled vehicles," stated Bryant. "Given all the improvements we have made since that fatal crash, today that vehicle would never be rented."

She said Enterprise customers can rest assured vehicles rented from the company are properly maintained and meet the highest standards for safety.

But even with all of these safeguards, a number of individuals and organizations have asked for additional oversight in the form of federal legislation, she said. "In the past, we believed this step was unnecessary, but a growing number of people, including our customers and business partners, clearly want more assurance on this critical issue," Bryant stated.

"We hear them—and what we’ve heard has caused us to rethink our stance."


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from St. Peters