October, 2015
Please sign this petition created by someone who has lost loved ones to help us all to have a Safer America. The petition already has more than 100,000 signatures – raised in just a few days. See
“The settlement will last at least three years and could be extended for a fourth year at NHTSA’s request.
Slater is a partner at law firm Squire Patton Boggs, where he co-leads the transportation practice. He is an adviser to Takata Corp., the air bag manufacturer under investigation by federal prosecutors and NHTSA over ruptures of inflators linked to at least eight deaths.
He also was an adviser to Toyota Motor Corp., and led an advisory panel that said in a 2011 report that Toyota was still “too centralized” in decision-making in the wake of its sudden acceleration problems. And he represented Cerberus Capital Management LP in 2007, when it was the majority owner of Chrysler Group LLC, as it sought to convince Congress to approve a softer fuel efficiency bill.
Slater in 2007 was named chairman of Driving America’s Future, a group largely funded by GM. It was aimed at generating grass-roots support for softer fuel rules using tools.
General Motors Co. is expected to announce the name of its independent monitor by the end of next week as part of the Justice Department’s $900 million, three-year consent decree after GM was charged with two felony counts over its delayed ignition switch recall linked to at least 124 deaths and 275 injuries. GM last week named an outside lawyer to oversee its compliance with the agreement.” See
October, 2015
New evidence that “Equal Justice Before the Law” does not apply to corporations and complicit government safety officials.
See Judge’s opinion on GM settlement at http://www.nationallawjournal.com/id=1202740396196/Federal-Judge-Slams-Shocking-DOJ-Deal-with-GM-Over-Safety-Defect
Also see what GM has done at least 174 deaths – and growing as unfixed vehicles continue to have crashes – at
October, 2015
Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 20, 2015
Contact:
Ryan Taylor (Wicker), 202-224-6253
Dean Lieberman (Feinstein), 202-224-9629
Sarah Zukowski (Blumenthal), 202-224-2823
**MEDIA ADVISORY**
Wicker, Feinstein, Blumenthal Unite to Stop Bigger Trucks
Senators Joined by Coalition of Industry, Safety Advocates, Law Enforcement, and Unions
WASHINGTON – On Wednesday, October 21, U.S. Senators Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., will hold a press conference to discuss their bipartisan opposition to a federal mandate that would allow large trucks to pull double 33-foot trailers on the nation’s highways. The Senators will be joined by representatives from the trucking industry, Teamsters, law enforcement, and a safety advocacy group.
A tractor trailer with two 33-foot trailers measures approximately 91 feet in total length, and this equipment will also be available for viewing.
Earlier this year, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved an amendment to the transportation funding bill requiring states to allow trucks with two 33-foot trailers on their highways. Current federal law permits double 28-foot trailers.
When the committee considered the measure, the Department of Transportation (DOT) advised that there is currently not enough data to draw firm conclusions on the safety implications of double 33-foot trailers. DOT recommended that no changes to truck size be considered at this time.
WHEN:
Wednesday, October 21, 2015, at 10:00 a.m. ET
WHO:
Senator Roger Wicker
Senator Dianne Feinstein
Senator Richard Blumenthal
David Williams, Knight Transportation
James Hoffa, International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Walter Armstrong, Police Chief, Vicksburg, MS
Jackie Gillan, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety
WHERE:
West Front of the U.S. Capitol on 1st Street NW, between Constitution Avenue and Peace Circle
# # #
October, 2015
Hearing Info is at http://energycommerce.house.gov/hearing/examining-ways-improve-vehicle-and-roadway-safety
Media Advisory: * * * MEDIA ADVISORY * * * October 20, 2015 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contact Sam Avery (Schakowsky): 202-225-2111 Christine Brennan (Pallone): 202-225-5735 Schakowsky, Pallone and others highlight Vehicle Safety Improvement Act after Auto and Roadway Safety Hearing WASHINGTON, DC – On Wednesday, October 21, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade will hold a legislative hearing on a draft auto bill. While a legislative fix to auto safety issues is sorely needed, it is inexcusable that it has taken so long to reach a legislative hearing. The House Republican draft is woefully inadequate and will not make American drivers, passengers, or pedestrians any safer. Congressional action should begin with the enactment of H.R. 1181, the Vehicle Safety Improvement Act – legislation introduced by Commerce, Trade and Manufacturing Subcommittee Ranking Member Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06), and other Committee Democrats earlier this year. Schakowsky, Pallone, other members of the Committee, consumer advocates, and victims of General Motors’ defective ignitions switches will hold a press conference after the hearing to make clear that Congress can and must do more to improve automobile safety. WHEN: Immediately following the Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade Subcommittee Hearing (Around 12:30 p.m.) Wednesday, October 21, 2015 Link to Livestream the Press Conference: <https://youtu.be/hA32a0cAE70> WHERE: House Triangle WHAT: Promote the Vehicle Safety Improvement Act, legislation to enhance auto safety, oversight, and accountability WHO: Rep. Jan Schakowsky, Commerce, Trade and Manufacturing Subcommittee Ranking Member Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr., Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Joan Claybrook, Co-Chair Advocates for Highway Safety and Former Head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Will Wallace, Consumers Union Two GM Victims (Laura Christian and Jamie Frei)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA32a0cAE70
October, 2015
But only one, Fiat Chrysler, requires that those using the discount give up their constitutional right to a jury trial in return for a few hundred bucks in savings.
“It’s like they’re doing you a favor and, by the way, they’re taking away your right to sue,” said Rosemary Shahan, president of the Sacramento advocacy group Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety. “This discount is like the piece of cheese on the trap that kills the mouse.”
See http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lazarus-20151016-column.html
October, 2015
“Cheating” is too weak a word to describe poisoning people for more than 4 decades by big auto and government policies.
The NY Times reports:
LONDON — Despite the cloud cast by the Volkswagen scandal, automakers are proposing that they be allowed a 70 percent increase in the nitrogen oxides their cars emit, unreleased documents show, as part of new European pollution tests.
Under the new plan, cars in Europe would for the first time be tested on the road, using portable monitoring equipment, in addition to laboratory testing.
The automakers, which include Volkswagen, General Motors, Daimler, BMW, Toyota, Renault, PSA Peugeot Citroën, Ford and Hyundai, are essentially conceding what outside groups have said for some time — that the industry cannot meet pollution regulations when cars are taken out of testing laboratories. The move is occurring as Volkswagen, the world’s largest automaker, grapples with fallout from the discovery that 11 million of its vehicles were equipped with software meant to cheat emissions tests.
Tests of car emissions required in the United States and Europe take place in laboratories, where vehicles are run through drills on a dynamometer, which is the automotive equivalent of a treadmill. Automakers have found ways to cheat the tests since emissions were first regulated in the early 1970s. Seehttp://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/03/business/automakers-ask-europe-for-leniency-in-emissions-testing.html?emc=edit_tnt_20151002&nlid=37926955&tntemail0=y&_r=0
Disclosure:
In the 1971 I blew the whistle on EPA changes in the emission test procedures to favor auto makers. I was fired and sued the National Academy of Sciences for access to information supporting my arguments. Judge Sirica and judges up to the Supreme Court ruled against me denying me access to the documents. See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/EPA-Whistle-Blow.pdf
Decades later the Nixon Tapes revealed what I did not know at the time. In April 1971, Henry Ford II and Lee Iacocca met with Nixon in the White House and pressed for relief on emission standards and had already met with EPA Administrator Ruckelshaus to change emission test procedures. See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/Nixon-Transcriptions.pdf
For more on history of emissions by companies and government failures to protect people, see the Center for Auto Safety statement:“The only way to change auto company behavior is to put the responsible executives in jail. After a flagrant pattern across the auto industry of violating US health and safety laws, the Center for Auto Safety calls on the Justice Department to move to put the responsible VW executives behind bars as it just did with peanut butter manufacturers.” Seehttp://www.autosafety.org/volkswagen-emissions-defeat-devices-violate-epa-emissions-rules
I am sorry to say that history teaches that we also have to hold government officials in all agencies and branches of government to the same standards of accountability.
Lou
