The National Auto Auction Association will begin raising awareness among its members about dealing with open recalls on vehicles that are sold at wholesale auctions under a new partnership with the National Safety Council.

The association is hoping to encourage its constituents to reduce open recalls and repaire more vehicles before sending them to auction. The council's Check to Protect campaign seeks to improve road safety by reducing the number of unrepaired recalls on roads.

"Recalls are an important part of our industry because many involve vehicles that may end up at our membership's auctions, so we're pleased to partner with the National Safety Council on developing proactive strategies to identify those with open recalls," said Frank Hackett, NAAA's chief executive. "Ultimately, we share the common goal of reducing the record-setting number of open recalls and making our roads safer for everyone."

The association and council will begin formulating strategies and identify solutions for repairing more vehicles currently up for auction.

Since the program's launch in June, more than 140,000 vehicle owners have checked their recall status using their vehicle identification number via ChecktoProtect.org.

The NAAA represents 342 wholesale auto auctions in 47 states, Canada, Puerto Rico, England, Australia and Japan, as well as 134 associate members from a wide range of industry-related fields. In 2017, NAAA member auctions sold 10 million units valued at $105.6 billion in weekly sales.