Month: September 2014

Questioning NHTSA Approved Regional Recalls for Exploding Airbags


Questioning NHTSA Approved Regional Recalls for Exploding Airbags

September, 2014

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members: “If one reads through the recall documents available on the NHTSA website it’s clear every manufacturer involved in this recall is willing to comply with NHTSA’s suggested “regional field action.” The field action, issued on June 11, 2014, calls for the replacement of air bags in certain vehicles located in Florida, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. On that same date (June 11, 2014) NHTSA opened an investigation to determine what is causing these air bags to spray potentially deadly fragments at drivers and passengers when the air bags deploy.““While this recall is similar to the GM and Toyota recalls there are some important differences. First, the recall is (so far) regional in nature. It only applies to vehicles in specific locations because the nature of the air bag problem appears climate related. Takata is claiming only high humidity will cause the air bags to deteriorate and eventually malfunction. Yet one of the fatalities linked to Takata air bags (shrapnel from the air bag cut a women, causing her to bleed to death) occurred in Richmond, Virginia in 2009. That same year another women was killed in a minor accident in Oklahoma from an exploding Takata air bag. Another air bag incident, also involving hot plastic and metal shrapnel, occurred in Los Angeles just three months ago. The first reported injury related to shrapnel from a Takata air bag deployment took place in 2004 — in Alabama. None of these locations are part of NHTSA’s June “field action” (NHTSA’s documents don’t label this action a recall, and every manufacturer response letter clearly noted that no “safety defect” determination has been made).”

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kbrauer/2014/09/15/takata-air-bag-recall-could-dwarf-gm-and-toyota-recalls/

Regional recalls provide additional evidence of NHTSA driving under the influence of the auto industry — government puppets protecting profits rather than people. 

Lou

 

NHTSA Asleep at the Wheel — or NHTSA DUI


NHTSA Asleep at the Wheel — or NHTSA DUI

September, 2014

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Senator Markey has written an excellent article on the tragedies of crash deaths and serious injuries that have resulted over the past decade — and the hidden dangers that all Americans have faced and continue to face.  Senator Markey wrote:

“In 2004, GM and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) had a secret meeting in which the attendees inexplicably agreed that cars that stalled on the road all by themselves was not necessarily a safety problem. Ten years later, the consequences of that meeting have been laid bare — the deaths of at least 21 people from a faulty ignition switch that caused Chevy Cobalts and Saturn Ions to turn off, causing cars to crash and preventing the deployment of airbags that could have saved lives.

NHTSA kept getting reports of fatal accidents caused by mysterious GM engine stalls — it even asked its contractors to investigate two of them in 2005 and 2006. But NHTSA did nothing with these reports, even though both of them found that the airbags did not deploy and that the engine was off at the time of the crashes.

In 2007, NHTSA asked for and received a secret document from GM related to the death of two Wisconsin teenagers. I made that document public for the first time at a May Senate hearing. It included a report by the Wisconsin State Patrol Academy that said that the ignition switch defect prevented airbags from deploying. It also found other examples of the same problem happening in other cars and identified a 2005 GM warning to dealers about the issue. That document correctly identified the safety defect, yet no action was taken by NHTSA”  See

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-ed-markey/asleep-at-the-wheel_b_5900530.html

Preponderance of Evidence of NHTSA DUI I have documented people in major positions of power and influence over NHTSA policies over the past decade.  To use Deputy NHTSA David Friedman’s term preponderance of evidence see the people, positions, and times of Federal, GM and other industry officials over the past decade.  The American people are capable of connecting  the dots and judging the guilt or innocence of NHTSA DUI.  See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/CFCV-MonthlyReport-March2014.pdf

Lou

 

NHTSA Deputy Administrator Acknowledges Need to Improve


NHTSA Deputy Administrator Acknowledges Need to Improve

September, 2014

Dear Care For Crash Victims Community Members:
Time Magazine article reports:
“A week after facing blistering criticism for his agency’s handling of the recent General Motors (GM) auto recall, the man charged with running the nation’s auto-safety administration acknowledged that his office needs to improve.

“Any life lost is one too many; anything that we can do to improve in a situation like this, we’ve got to do,” David Friedman, interim head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), tells TIME in his first interview since the hearing.”….“The agency was granted just over $10 million to investigate defects in 2014, a paltry sum considering the 250 million vehicles on the road in the United States. Overall, the agency devotes about $130 million annually to vehicle safety research—a total that outrages auto-safety advocate Ralph Nader. “It’s about the cost of three months of guarding the US embassy in Baghdad,” Nader tells TIME.”….

“Nader, along with others, says he is skeptical, but ultimately, external pressures may make the question of whether NHTSA officials want to change irrelevant.

“I think the agency will change,” says Joan Claybrook, who ran the agency during Jimmy Carter’s presidency. “If it doesn’t they’re in trouble.””

Nader is right to be skeptical and Claybrook is right they will be in trouble if the agency does not change for the better.  

The latest NHTSA Org Chart (copy attached) still shows ex GM officials in positions of power and influence.  

And all those people who have long been on the chess board of power and influence over the past decade have only changed positions – not their stripes – as they moved through revolving doors.  See some of the major chess board positions and people involved in the failures to protect American lives over the past decade identified in attached March Monthly Report.

Remember there are still millions of unfixed defective vehicles on America’s roads and streets endangering us all.

Lou

 

Progress on GM & NHTSA Scandals: All the Kings’ Horses..


Progress on GM & NHTSA Scandals: All the Kings’ Horses..

September, 2014

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Progress continues along the bloody road of crash deaths and serious injuries.

Growing Public Information   The NY Times publishes in one place links to its many landmark articles on the scandal so far.  Seehttp://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/09/19/business/crisis-in-gm-auto-safety.html?mabReward=RI%3A5&action=click&contentCollection=Business%20Day&region=Footer&module=Recommendation&src=recg&pgtype=article

Timeline   1.  In September 2013, GM settled Melton case for an undisclosed amount.  If it was for $5 million, was the GM Board informed?  See http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/05/18/business/gms-ignition-problem-who-knew-what-when.html?action=click&contentCollection=Business%20Day&module=RelatedCoverage&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article
2.   January 2014, GM Chair Daniel Akerson and NHTSA Administrator David Strickland resign.
3.  September 2014, NHTSA Deputy Administrator Friedman tries unsuccessfully to defend NHTSA’s trail of failures to protect Americans before a Senate Commerce Committee Hearing.
4.   September 16, 2014 – “U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a Detroit News interview the White House is getting closer to naming a new chief to run the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.”   See http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140916/AUTO01/309160098

5.  September 19, 2014 – Federal judge orders discovery to proceed. 

“A federal judge in Manhattan on Friday ordered discovery to begin for some cases filed against General Motors Co (GM.N) in connection with its recall of millions of cars for a faulty ignition switch.

U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman in the Southern District of New York said plaintiffs could begin requesting documents from the company related to accidents, injuries and lost vehicle value linked to the switch that allegedly occurred after GM emerged from bankruptcy in 2009.” 

6.  What may be the most important recent article is this week’s Automotive News article “Lawyers reaching for in-car data” – or more accurately and comprehensively telematics data.  “Information gathered by vehicle telematics systems such as General Motors’ OnStar, Ford’s Sync, BMW ConnectedDrive and others is garnering increased attention from lawyers who see the data as a puzzle piece in building court cases. 
See http://www.autonews.com/article/20140914/OEM11/309159952/lawyers-reaching-for-in-car-data The current reality is that GM vehicles are in 10,000 fatal crashes each year in the U.S.   About 7,000 are occupants of the GM vehicle and about 3,000 are persons killed in crashes with a GM vehicle.
As I have written, what GM and NHTSA have known since 2007 suggests the problems are bigger than the public knows.  Just the number of airbag non-deployment crashes analyzed by GM using OnStar data — and published by NHTSA in 2007 are alarming.  

“The number of frontal non-deployment crashes in 2005
amounts to 356 cases, or an average each day of about 1 such non-deployment frontal crash, where airbags met the GM deployment threshold.  Unknown is how many of these crashes GM and/or NHTSA investigated for defects, and outcomes since 2005.”  
Evidence of NHTSA and GM’s Failures Portend Changes Ahead

The evidence continues to grow.   When will we reach a tipping point?
Will there be a settlement that involves just money?  Or will there be a settlement that results in fundamental safety changes in both GM and NHTSA for the better?
Hopefully this will result in a substantial step toward meeting Vision Zero goals for the nation, GM, and all auto companies.
Lou

 

House Energy and Commerce Report on NHTSA Failures


House Energy and Commerce Report on NHTSA Failures

September, 2014

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Sorry I missed this until now, but the House Energy and Commerce Committee has issued a Report with documents:

“Committee Report Details NHTSA Failures in GM Ignition Switch Recall“

September 16, 2014

Report: NHTSA “must be willing to hold itself accountable and learn from past mistakes”

WASHINGTON, DC – The House Energy and Commerce Committee today released a new report written by the majority staff outlining the findings of its investigation related to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) role in the delay of the General Motors (GM) ignition switch recall. The report identified a number of key failures and missed opportunities by the nation’s automobile safety regulator in analyzing and responding to data and information provided to the agency, which contributed to NHTSA’s inability to identify the safety defect.

– See more at: http://energycommerce.house.gov/press-release/committee-report-details-nhtsa-failures-gm-ignition-switch-recall#sthash.RjVhT57e.dpuf“

And/or at 

Two articles are at 

Lou

 

Attorney General Holder To Resign – Too Big To Jail


Attorney General Holder To Resign – Too Big To Jail

September, 2014

Dear Care for Crash Victims community Members:

This decision by the current Attorney General (AG) opens questions about the policies of the Obama Administration regarding failures to protect Americans from crash injuries and deaths as well as preventing crimes in the suites – both corporate and governmental.

The NY Times Editorial reviewing Mr. Holder’s record noted:

“On the financial front, he did not prosecute a single prominent banker or firm in connection with the subprime mortgage crisis that nearly destroyed the economy. These are not accomplishments to be proud of.

Of course, Mr. Holder has always served at the pleasure of the president, who has his own policy priorities and political survival to consider.”  Seehttp://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/26/opinion/eric-holders-legacy.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3As%2C{%221%22%3A%22RI%3A8%22} Last year the NY Times noted: “At the same Wednesday judiciary committee meeting where Attorney General Eric Holder hemmed and hawed before acknowledging that the president cannot authorize a drone strike on American soil, against an American terrorist suspect posing no imminent threat, he explained why the Justice Department has failed to bring criminal charges against a single Wall Street bank. Mr. Holder suggested, as a Financial Times headline put it this morning, that some banks are “too big to jail.”….

“Mr. Holder said: “I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if you do prosecute, if you do bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy.”

“It’s nice and all that Mr. Holder cares about the stability of the global financial system, but that is not Mr. Holder’s job. As attorney general he is the country’s top law enforcement officer, and in that capacity he should prosecute criminals and criminal institutions.

“As we wrote in an editorial after the no-indict decision, “when prosecutors choose not to prosecute to the full extent of the law in a case as egregious as this, the law itself is diminished. The deterrence that comes from the threat of criminal prosecution is weakened, if not lost.”” See  http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/07/banks-above-the-law/

So in the endless cases of crash deaths and serious injuries currently resulting in nearly 100 crash deaths and 400 serious crash injuries per day under the Obama Administration and no criminal prosecutions of a single corporate or government official is it not time for reform?  It is a time when the President’s decisions on who will replace AG Holder and NHTSA Deputy Administrator David Friedman will reveal who is most responsible for the nation’s failures to protect Americans from crash deaths and serious injuries.

Currently under President Obama’s expected 8 years, the nation is on track to record nearly 250,000 crash deaths – more than twice the number of Americans who died in the Afghanistan, Iraq, Viet Nam, and Korean wars combined.  Plus about 1 million serious crash injuries and $7 trillion in societal losses.

It’s time to change direction for the better — here in the U.S.A. 

Last week President Obama spoke about problems all around the world as he is leading the U.S. into another war.  At the Clinton Global Initiative President Obama said:

“No matter how dark the hour, we remember those words of Dr. King: “The time is always ripe to do right.”  

See http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/09/23/remarks-president-clinton-global-initiative

So now the time is ripe for President Obama to do right.  Here in the U.S.A.

Lou