Sen. Ed Markey, a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation, is questioning the federal agency that oversees tire safety, citing an ABC News Investigation  that exposed defective tires still being sold to the public.

Following Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx’s appearance before lawmakers earlier this month, Sen. Markey, D-Mass., submitted a question for the record to Foxx, asking if there are plans to implement a database searchable by a tire’s TIN.

In referencing the ABC News investigation, Sen. Markey wrote, “there is no database that is searchable by TINs on NHTSA’s database and often no way for consumers, vendors or manufacturers to quickly and easily access and read the TINs on tires themselves. This has led to accidents, injuries and deaths as people drove in vehicles with recalled tires that later failed.”

Markey has asked if the DOT would undertake the creation of a searchable TIN database and “if not, why not?”