Month: November 2014

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

It is a rare day when crash victims receive justice.  Justice for crash victims is too often, too little, too late, for too many people.

The NY Times has just reported on a rare Justice “Success Story” for crash victims:

“Candice Anderson received the bittersweet news Monday in a Texas courtroom, fighting back tears, and her arm around the mother of the boyfriend she had felt responsible for killing in a car crash 10 years ago.

The judge cleared Ms. Anderson in the death of the boyfriend, Gene Mikale Erickson, even though she had pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide in the case years ago.

Ms. Anderson, 21 at the time of the crash, was driving her car when she inexplicably lost control and crashed into a tree. Mr. Erickson, her passenger, died at the scene, and Ms. Anderson has been racked with guilt ever since.

In getting her record cleared, Ms. Anderson benefited from an extraordinary — and long delayed — admission by General Motors, which on Monday for the first time publicly linked Mr. Erickson’s death to an ignition switch defect in millions of its small cars….”  

“Ms. Anderson’s Saturn Ion was among the cars equipped by G.M. with the defective switch, which can cause a loss of power, disabling power brakes, power steering and airbags. At least 35 deaths have been linked to the defect, which went unreported by G.M. for more than a decade.

In May 2007, five months before Ms. Anderson entered her guilty plea, G.M. had conducted an internal review of the crash and quietly ruled its car was to blame, but never let Ms. Anderson or local law enforcement officials know.

After the crash on Nov. 15, 2004, Ms. Anderson’s parents liquidated their 401(k) to retain a lawyer to defend her. While a deal with prosecutors spared her jail time, she was on probation for five years and paid more than $10,000 in fines and restitution.”  See 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/25/business/woman-cleared-in-death-caused-by-gms-faulty-ignition-switch.html?emc=edit_tnt_20141124&nlid=37926955&tntemail0=y

This article illustrates the importance of media attention to the plight of crash victims. Thanks to trial lawyers, engineers, consumer advocates, congressional pressure, government agencies and officials, and citizens doing their parts, some justice can be achieved for some crash victims.

But as we are all crash victims in so many ways, we need to achieve both justice and safety to prevent injuries to all future crash victims.  Both “success” stories and “suffering” stories of crash victims help move us as a society to achieve greater safety.  With about 100 crash deaths per day, plus 400 serious crash injuries per day, and costs of about $2 Billion per day occurring in the U.S.A. today — we have a great need for crash victim justice and safety.  See

NHTSA Report on Economic and Societal Costs at http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812013.pdf

Lou

The Detroit News reports: 

“Last week, a senior administration official told reporters NHTSA’s handling of the recall was “suboptimal.”

Foxx told The Detroit News on Friday that NHTSA’s handling of the recall “wasn’t flawless in the sense” that there were mistakes in press releases — some wrong cars and the wrong number of vehicles were listed in releases on successive days last week. And the website at which car owners could check to see if the vehicles were recalled wasn’t working for much of the week.

“That’s what was suboptimal,” Foxx said. He praised NHTSA’s “incredible track record” over the last decade.”  See 

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/foreign/2014/10/31/nissan-air-bag-recall/18234493/

So what was this praiseworthy “incredible track record” of NHTSA over the past decade of Bush/Obama?

And please comment.

Too Little Too Late For Too Many Crash Victims

“Nearly nine months after General Motors began recalling millions of its cars for a dangerously defective ignition switch, almost half of the vehicles still have not been fixed….

One of the unrepaired vehicles was a red 2006 Chevrolet Cobalt that crashed here the night of Oct. 9, killing its 25-year-old driver, Brittany Alfarone. Her mother, Dierdre Betancourt, said she had tried to fix the car twice, but two dealers turned her away….

Joseph Brini was driving behind Ms. Alfarone the night of the accident. He said it seemed as if the driver was wrestling with the car. “My feeling is she was trying to get some control,” he said. “The poor girl had no control of the car.”

The vehicle slammed into a guardrail and erupted in flames. The county medical examiner listed the cause of death as thermal burns, asphyxiation because of carbon monoxide and laceration of the liver, a condition that some auto engineering experts say suggests, based on Ms. Alfarone’s slight build, the airbag did not deploy.”  See

Thanks to the “generosity” of the GM Feinberg “Compensation” current plan, crash victims have been “given” an extension of 1 month until the end of January 2015 to just apply to be deemed eligible.  (Is there a connection between that date and the control of the Senate?)

 http://www.blumenthal.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/blumenthal-statement-on-feinberg-decision-to-extend-gm-victim-compensation-fund-deadline-to-january-31

The NY Times provides important insight into the current plan.“The families of people killed or injured in crashes involving General Motors cars that had a deadly ignition switch defect will have an extra month to submit claims for payment under G.M.’s victim compensation program.

Kenneth R. Feinberg, who administers the compensation fund, has decided to extend the deadline to Jan. 31 to give more time to families who might not be aware of the program.

The extension comes a week after The New York Times revealed the identity of Jean P. Averill, who was killed in a 2003 crash of a Saturn Ion at the age of 81. Hers was the earliest fatality G.M. connected with the ignition defect. Until informed by The Times, the family had not known of the company’s compensation program or that it was eligible to receive a minimum of $1 million from the fund. At that time, the family said it had never been contacted by the automaker.”  See

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/17/business/deadline-extended-for-gm-accident-claims.html?mabReward=RI%3A10&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&region=CColumn&module=Recommendation&src=rechp&WT.nav=RecEngine&_r=0

And for a peek into how the GM Feinberg program currently operates:

“WASHINGTON — If this Monday is like almost every other one this fall, the death toll from General Motors’ defective ignition switch will rise.” See 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/16/business/-cold-numbers-on-gm-crisis-a-peek-inside.html?action=click&contentCollection=Business%20Day&module=RelatedCoverage&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article

Crash victims will continue to be identified.  As will the efforts by GM to limit their payouts to victims – and the need to drastically improve safety for their customers and the public.

Too slowly, but the public is at least now learning what has been happening and who is responsible for all this preventable suffering.

Lou

See http://www.blumenthal.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/blumenthal-calls-on-general-motors-to-contact-known-victims-of-faulty-ignition-switch-extend-compensation-fund-deadline-for-families-that-just-learned-of-eligibility