February, 2016
Roger C. Lanctot has posted an informative blog on current DOT NHTSA officials and policies on driver-less vehicles.
See https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/nhtsas-googles-war-drivers-roger-c-lanctot
February, 2016
Laura Christian has a petition to protect us all that is making major progress. She writes:“I’m working with Maryland lawmakers to pass the Amber Rose Bill, which would give free speech protections to Maryland dealers who wish to disclose potential issues to consumers. Dealers constantly receive technical bulletins from car companies about issues. They should be allowed to share what they know with potential buyers.“
Please see and sign it at: https://www.change.org/p/keep-car-buyers-and-drivers-safe?recruiter=6052444&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink
Lou
February, 2016
The shocking history of discovery of countless tragedies – so far – is well described at
February, 2016
Lou
February, 2016
Salon article by Bill Curry is worth reading if you want to know why safety came last in recent decades:
“I’d rate Citizens United the second most corrupt decision in Supreme Court history after Bush v. Gore. Blind partisanship drove Bush v. Gore. Right-wing ideology informs both decisions. But Citizens United’s key findings, that our politics isn’t really corrupt and we don’t care anyway, is neither partisan nor extreme. It is in fact the bipartisan consensus of Washington’s soul-sick, brain-dead establishment.
If you doubt it, consider Barack Obama. In 2008, America was almost as angry at its government as it is today. Then as now, the media and political consultants to both parties were blind to the issue. But Obama and strategist David Axelrod sort of got it. Axelrod wasn’t much for specificity. He preached the “politics of biography” (sell the person, not the policy). So Obama spoke of transforming “Washington’s culture.” It was powerful stuff, but not quite powerful enough.
Voters knew the problem wasn’t “partisan gridlock” but a hammerlock of special interests. They could abide politicians’ incivility but not their corruption. Obama added some policy meat to the metaphorical bone of his message. He called whistle-blowers heroes and vowed to strengthen freedom of information, to let C-SPAN cameras film healthcare negotiations, end no-bid contracts, close revolving doors and never hire lobbyists to handle matters of special concern to their ex-clients. By late fall, nearly every speech he gave ended in a rousing call for reform.
Breaking those vows was the original sin of the Obama administration. No C-SPAN cameras ever filmed a meeting. He didn’t treat whistle-blowers as heroes; he broke records prosecuting them. He didn’t end no-bid contracts; he increased them. He didn’t ban lobbyists; he recruited them. (Healthcare industry consultants drove that team; he even hired a defense lobbyist to oversee Pentagon procurement policy.) Revolving doors kept swinging; every ex-Obama staffer you ever heard of now sits on some comfy corporate perch. Republicans didn’t kill the reforms. Obama had the power to implement each one by executive order, but chose not to.
In 2008, Obama raised more money from big business than any candidate in either party’s history and in 2009 he hired the most conservative economic team of any Democratic president since Grover Cleveland. He then sided with insurers against a public option, with banks against rescuing homeowners and with business against raising the minimum wage. If you’re highly educated and care more about cultural than economic issues, you may not have noticed. If you’re financially pressed, you may be torn between Sanders and Trump, or have given up on politics altogether.” See
Lou
February, 2016
When people suffer and die as a result of corporate crime again and again, why do corporate executives not go to jail in America?
VW cheats and pollutes our lungs deliberately for years. GM covers up deaths and injuries for a decade.
Takata chooses to cover up exploding airbags that kill for many years.
When executives are not jailed for crimes year after year it becomes clear that our system is rigged against us all.
February, 2016
Please see release and documents below:
February 5, 2016202-328-7700
CAS Sues Transportation Secretary Foxx For Violating Safety Act Mandate to Post Dealer Technical Service Bulletins & Index on DOT Website
For over three years DOT has violated the Congressional mandate in the “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act” (MAP-21) enacted on July 6, 2012 that “the Secretary shall make available on a publicly accessible Internet website, a true or representative copy of each communication to the manufacturer’s dealers or to owners or purchasers of a motor vehicle or replacement equipment produced by the manufacturer about a defect or noncompliance with a motor vehicle safety standard prescribed under this chapter in a vehicle or equipment that is sold or serviced.”
To make the Bulletins findable by consumers, MAP-21 required “an index to each communication, which–
(A) identifies the make, model, and model year of the affected vehicles;
(B) includes a concise summary of the subject matter of the communication; and
(C) shall be made available by the Secretary to the public on the Internet in a searchable format.”
DOT has failed to do either legal mandate – publish the actual bulletins or an index to them.
According CAS Executive Director Clarence Ditlow: “DOT failure to implement the law costs consumers money for repairs that covered by Service Bulletins and endangers their lives by witholding Service Bulletins that disclosures defects that can cause crashes, deaths and injuries. Today the Center for Auto Safety filed suit against DOT Secretary Foxx to force the Secretary to do what the law so clearly requires. This is yet another example of where voluntary and cooperative action by the auto industry so praised by Secretary Foxx fails.”
# # #
The Center is represented by Adina Rosenbaum of the Public Citizen Litigation Group in Washington DC.
Related Documents
CAS v. Foxx Complaint – 2/4/16
Examples of Technical Service Bulletins – Ford Toyota General Motors
No wonder most Americans think that government policies are on the wrong track.
