March, 2016
FYI January 27, 2014 National Automobile Dealers Association New Orleans, LA $325,500.00 Full list at http://citizenuprising.com/hillary-clintons-speaking-fees-2013-2015/
March, 2016
See Consumer Affairs article on Google and lobbyist David Strickland. https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/google-wants-congress-to-put-self-driving-cars-in-the-fast-lane-031516.html
Lou
March, 2016
“NHTSA’s ability to identify and define safety-related motor vehicle defects relies in large part on manufacturers’ self-reporting. However, although federal regulations may require them to report certain information to NHTSA, manufacturers do not always do so, or do not do so in a timely manner. Additionally, the information a manufacturer is required to report varies greatly depending on the product and company size and purpose. Given these constraints, safety-related information developed or discovered in private litigation is an important resource for NHTSA.
This Enforcement Guidance Bulletin sets forth NHTSA’s recommended guiding principles and best practices to be utilized in the context of private litigation. To the extent protective orders, settlement agreements, or other confidentiality provisions prohibit information obtained in private litigation from being transmitted to NHTSA, such limitations are contrary to Rule 26 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, its state corollaries, and sound principles of public policy. Although such restrictions are generally prohibited by applicable rules and law, the Agency recommends that litigants include a specific provision in any protective order or settlement agreement that provides for disclosure of relevant motor vehicle safety information to NHTSA, regardless of any other restrictions on the disclosure or dissemination of such information.”
Please see Guidelines for reporting at https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2016/03/11/2016-05522/nhtsa-enforcement-guidance-bulletin-2015-01-recommended-best-practices-for-protective-orders-and
Please also see attached comment to NHTSA by Investigator Steve Gray that notes the past legal practices that permitted deaths and injuries to occur for decades.
Now we still have to make sure that legal information transmitted to NHTSA is made public and acted upon in the public interest.
Lou
March, 2016
WSJ reports:
“General Motors Co.lawyers who lost their jobs over the auto maker’s ignition-switch crisis will avoid relinquishing their law licenses.
Michigan authorities in February and March denied requests from an ignition-switch victim’s father to investigate a half dozen former GM employees, according to documents The Wall Street Journal reviewed.
Jay Gass, a Tennessee retiree, asked Michigan’s Attorney Grievance Commission to launch the probes and suggested the former employees be stripped of their state law licenses, the documents show. Mr. Gass’s 27-year-old daughter died in 2014 in a car with the faulty switch after GM failed for more than a decade to recall vehicles with the safety defect, now linked to 124 deaths….
The Michigan commission, a state supreme court arm that polices lawyer misconduct, rejected his requests, saying the matters were litigated and resolved. “The tragedies that resulted from various individuals employed by General Motors are not subject to review by this agency,” a commission staffer wrote in separate letters to Mr. Gass that the Journal reviewed. The letters supported decisions not to reveal confidential client information.
A corporate lawyer’s obligation to speak up varies by state. Florida lawyers, for instance, must breach confidentiality to warn consumers at risk of death or bodily harm. But GM lawyers weren’t required to do so under Michigan’s professional conduct rules, said Stephen Gillers, a legal ethics professor at New York University’s law school.
Michigan and most other states “leave it up to the lawyer’s conscience,” Mr. Gillers said.”
See https://www.wsj.com/articles/michigan-won-t-discipline-lawyers-in-gm-ignition-case-1459080002
Unequal justice for crash victims.
Lou
March, 2016
“Fight then wherever you may be to protect us all from the end that shouldn’t be”
March, 2016
Corporate Crime Reporter interviewed Marianne Karth and Byron Bloch.
“The Karth family – a Rocky Mount, North Carolina family who lost their two teenage daughters in a 2013 truck crash – will travel to Washington, D.C. Friday March 4 to deliver a Vision Zero petition with over 20,000 signatures to the Department of Transportation.
Mary and AnnaLeah Karth
Motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death in the United States with 33,000 people killed in crashes each year.
The Department of Transportation currently makes highway safety rules based on a cost benefit analysis resulting in many highway safety measures being blocked.
The petition, launched in 2015, urges Department of Transportation and the Office of Management and Budget to change that practice, and move toward a Vision Zero safety strategy model with goals of: Zero Deaths, Zero Serious Injuries, Zero Fear of Traffic.
The petition calls for changing rulemaking policy to move away from a cost/benefit model and adopt a more humanistic, rational vision Zero safety strategy model that will impact all DOT safety regulation.
Specifically, the petition also calls for applying Vision Zero principles initiating rulemaking to require forward collision avoidance and mitigation braking on all new large trucks and applying Vision Zero principles by requiring crash test-base performance standards for truck side and rear underride guards.
President Obama should also meet with the Karth family in view of the 200,000 crash deaths under his presidency so far — and growing at nearly 100 more per day.
See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/MonthlyReportforJanuary2016-Corrected.pdf
March, 2016
Please see and support this crash victims petition.
Contact: Marianne Karth, mariannekarth@gmail.com or (432) 556-1567
MEDIA ADVISORY
NORTH CAROLINA TRUCK CRASH VICTIMS HEAD TO DC TO DELIVER
‘VISION ZERO’ PETITIONS TO U.S. DOT AND OMB
(WASHINGTON, DC) – A Rocky Mount, NC family who lost their two teenage daughters in a 2013 truck crash, will deliver their “Vision Zero” petition with nearly 20,000 signatures to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) in Washington, D.C. on Friday, March 4, 2016.
Motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death in the United States with 33,000 people killed in crashes each year. The U.S. DOT currently makes highway safety rules based on a cost benefit analysis resulting in many highway safety measures being blocked. The Karth’s petition, launched in 2015, urges DOT and the Office of Management and Budget to change that practice, and move towards a Vision Zero safety strategy model with goals of: Zero Deaths, Zero Serious Injuries, Zero Fear of Traffic by:
· Change rulemaking policy to move away from a cost/benefit model and adopt a more humanistic, rational vision Zero safety strategy model that will impact all DOT safety regulations;
· Apply Vision Zero principles initiating rulemaking to require forward collision avoidance and mitigation braking on all new large trucks; and
· Apply Vision Zero principles by requiring crash test-base performance standards for truck side and rear underride guards.
In addition to delivering the petitions to and meeting with U.S. DOT Director of Public Engagement Bryna Helfer and a group of DOT Policy officials, the Karth family will meet with several Members of Congress and their staff including Senators Sid Blumenthal (D-CT), Richard Burr (R-NC), Johnny Isakson (R-GA) and Ed Markey (D-MA), and Representatives Matt Cartwright (D-PA), Rene Ellmers (R-NC) and George Holding (R-NC). Full schedule of meetings can be found at http://annaleahmary.com/.
WHO: Marianne and Jerry Karth (Rocky Mount, NC) and members of their family (available for interviews)
WHEN: Thursday, March 3 – Friday, March 4, 2016
WHERE: U.S. DOT and Capitol Hill offices
BACKGROUND: On May 4, 2013, as the Karth family drove to Texas to celebrate four graduations and a wedding their car was hit by a truck that was unable to stop in time for slowed traffic. The impact spun their car around and forced it backward and underneath a second truck’s trailer. Marianne and her son were in the front seats and survived the impact with injuries. AnnaLeah (17) and Mary (13) were in the back seats, which went underneath the trailer, and died as a result of catastrophic injuries.
To bring attention to the need for improved rear underride guard standards to protect car occupants in truck crashes and honor the memories of their daughters, AnnaLeah and Mary, on the first anniversary of the crash the Karth family began a petition. They delivered 11,000 signatures on their AnnaLeah and Mary Stand Up for Truck Safety petition to the U.S. DOT in 2014.
The Karth family has set up a non-profit organization to promote highway safety research and federal regulations to protect motorists, pedestrians and cyclists.
For more information on the Vision Zero petition, please visit http://annaleahmary.com/.
