White Cars Are About 10% Safer Report


White Cars Are About 10% Safer Report

February, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

The link I gave to the Australian study on white cars being safer has been taken down.  Looks like the auto industry did not like that Report being available to the public that stated:

“Results of the analysis identified a clear statistically significant relationship between vehicle colour and crash risk. Compared to
white vehicles, a number of colours were associated with higher crash risk. These colours are generally those lower on the visibility
index and include black, blue, grey, green, red and silver. No colour was statistically significantly safer than white although a number of other colours could not be distinguished from white statistically in terms of relative crash risk. The association between vehicle colour and crash risk was strongest during daylight hours where relative
crash risks were higher for the colours listed compared to white by up to around 10%.”

So here for your files is the actual report attached.

Consumers have a right to life saving information.
Lou

 

Victim’s Mother and Consumer Advocates Call for Reforms in Auto Safety Recalls


Victim’s Mother and Consumer Advocates Call for Reforms in Auto Safety Recalls

February, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:
A major Maryland auto dealer joins consumers supporting State legislation.

“The outrageous delays in getting cars with serious safety flaws recalled are putting the lives of our customers at risk,” Jack Fitzgerald notes. “Dealers need to make sure safety recalls happen much more quickly. We need to make it possible for our customers to get the warranty and repair work they need done, when they need it done.”

The reform package comes after a record 64 million U.S. vehicles were recalled to address safety and repair problems in 2014. In the case of the GM ignition switch failures, and in many of the other recalls, the safety fixes now underway come many years, sometimes more than a decade, after manufacturers knew the cars carried serious safety flaws.

“People are losing their lives on the road because manufactures are hiding safety problems, delaying recalls, and forcing dealers to withhold critical information,” Fitzgerald said.

At least 56 people have died, and hundreds have suffered devastating injuries in crashes that could have been prevented if the flawed GM ignition switches had been repaired in a timely fashion.

Laura Christian knows the pain those losses caused first hand, after her daughter Amber lost her life when the airbag in her new Chevy Cobalt failed to inflate when she struck a tree on July 29, 2005.”

See http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/victims-mother-and-consumer-advocates-call-for-reforms-in-auto-safety-recalls-300039501.html 

Lou

 

Unsafe Guardrails Lead To Spending To Lobby State Attorneys General


Unsafe Guardrails Lead To Spending To Lobby State Attorneys General

February, 2015

Dear Care For Crash Victims Community Members:
A lost limb in a crash, a whistle blower, and a lobbying blitz.

See http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/13/business/troubled-guardrail-maker-goes-on-a-lobbying-blitz.html

 

Too Big To Jail — Too Much Power To Do Wrong vs. Too Little Power To Do Right


Too Big To Jail — Too Much Power To Do Wrong vs. Too Little Power To Do Right

February, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:
The System is Rigged

Corporations and government officials can commit omnicide.   And not only can they get away with it – but benefit from it.   What is the ordinary citizen to do when the system is rigged?

What are we to do when we read that Billions of dollars are being spent to elect Presidents, Senators, Members of Congress?  And countless dollars also are being spent to elect and influence Governors, State Legislators, Judges, Attorneys General?   And then there are the Revolving Doors.  Governmental officials at all levels and in all branches can be tempted and seduced by the prospect of a “better life” on the outside if they behave well on the inside.  Such is life on the inside and societal harm including deaths and injuries on the outside.
And then there are the infinite ways of bribery – legal and otherwise that are seldom caught and punished.  
President Obama’s Time To Do Right
In September, I wrote about President Obama’s and Attorney General Holder’s record of failures to protect crash victims  See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/blog-holderresign.php Today we read in an excellent NY Times article:“The entire structure of a corporation is intended to protect and insulate high-ranking executives, who are often shielded from knowledge of wrongdoing, even if they have tacitly approved it.”  See 
The GM Defect Case
Recall the GM Ignition Switch Defect case.  The latest status:

“In the fraught summer of 2009, the federal bankruptcy judge Robert E. Gerber proved to be a crucial figure in General Motors’ struggle for survival. With the economy in deep recession and the once-dominant automaker bleeding red ink, he presided over a bankruptcy process that allowed G.M. to remake itself — with the help of $49 billion from federal taxpayers — as a new company free of onerous liabilities.

On Tuesday, lawyers representing the reborn, and profitable, G.M. were back in Judge Gerber’s Manhattan courtroom seeking his assistance once again. They were asking him simply to uphold a key provision of the agreement, but the judge’s response is less certain.

The occasion was a day of oral arguments over whether a provision of the July 2009 agreement that shielded the “new G.M.” from most legal claims involving accidents before that date should be allowed to stand. The company is trying to shut down hundreds of lawsuits, many of them seeking class-action status, over a defective ignition switch that has been linked to hundreds of accidents and at least 56 deaths.”  See

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/18/business/judge-hears-arguments-over-gms-exposure-to-recall-suits.html?hpw&rref=automobiles&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

So what is Judge Robert E. Gerber’s status?  Automotive News citing Reuters reports the judge announced his intent to retire. 

“NEW YORK (Reuters) — The New York bankruptcy judge overseeing part of the fallout from General Motors Co’s problems with faulty ignition switches will retire from the bench, but remain active in so-called recall status for at least a year, his court announced.

Judge Robert Gerber will assume recall status on Jan. 1, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York announced in a statement published late on Friday. Recall status allows judges who are technically retired to continue to serve.

Reuters reported earlier this month that Gerber was planning to assume recall status.”

Gerber will remain on the bench at least through 2015, according to the court’s announcement.”  See

http://www.autonews.com/article/20141117/OEM/141119858/gms-bankruptcy-judge-to-retire-remain-on-recall-status

Two types of ignorance: unconscious (absence of information) and conscious (in presence of information).

Will right be done in GM case?

Lou

 

Are Auto Company Payments of NHTSA Fines Tax Deductible?


Are Auto Company Payments of NHTSA Fines Tax Deductible?

February, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:
Your Life and Your Money

Recently I asked NHTSA about whether the $70 million Honda fine was tax deductible or not.  NHTSA seemed not to know – or care.

See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/blog-nhtsadeductible.php

Now we read the following:“Carmakers are far from the only companies that can exploit loopholes that allow them to lower their tax bill by deducting fines, forfeitures and other payments related to wrongdoing. Although the tax law forbids deductions for criminal fines and penalties owed to the government, other kinds of payments — to compensate victims or correct damages — are eligible for a tax deduction.”  Seehttp://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/04/business/when-a-company-is-fined-taxpayers-often-share-the-punishment.html?_r=0

NHTSA officials now know for sure.   Will NHTSA care?  As long as it remains a captive agency without management changes at the top by Administrator Rosekind, NHTSA is not likely to care.

Lou

 

Takata Airbag Law Suits Being Consolidated before Republican Judge Federico Moreno


Takata Airbag Law Suits Being Consolidated before Republican Judge Federico Moreno

February, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Republicans heavily involved in Takata airbag recalls:

*  Former DOT Secretary Skinner, John Snow, Jeffrey Runge, Marion Blakey and others   See http://www.autonews.com/article/20150120/OEM11/150129984/takata-airbag-review-panel-members-named-by-skinner
*  Now a Republican Judge placed in charge of Takata airbag litigation.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federico_A._Moreno

*  And http://legalnewsline.com/issues/class-action/254860-airbag-recall-lawsuits-consolidated-being-sent-to-fla-federal-court?utm_source=wysija&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=LNL0327alert2

All very qualified to examine airbag safety defects from a particular political point of view.

Reminds me of the lyrics: The country is in the very best of hands. Watch  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwqPBlSxb-0
We can laugh (wryly) or cry.

Lou

 

How Bob Simon’s Tragic Death Can Make Us All Safer


How Bob Simon’s Tragic Death Can Make Us All Safer

February, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

One of my most enduring early lessons learned when I first came to Washington in the late 1960s was that too often it takes a tragedy to make progress.

Today an excellent article by John Cichowski quotes safety advocates Clarence Ditlow and Jacki Gillan opening the question of how such tragedies can be prevented in the future.  That question is perhaps the best tribute to Bob Simon’s life.  See http://www.northjersey.com/news/new-york-tri-state-area/could-rear-air-bags-have-saved-bob-simon-1.1271812?page=all

USA Today’s Larry Copeland also wrote an excellent article that explored the injury problems of unbuckled people in taxis and the lack of laws requiring people in backseats to be buckled up.  See http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/02/13/no-seat-belt-violation-in-simon-crash/23354289/ Bob Simon’s life and tragic death can continue to do good for humankind forever.

Let us help make it so.

Lou