Safety + Justice Delayed = Safety + Justice Denied
November, 2014
Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:
Progress In Safety & Justice
Attorneys, Citizen Safety Advocates, Legislators, Investigative Reporters, and Editorial Boards are collecting and analyzing the evidence that GM covered up the tragedies of defective ignition switches. And who knows how much more? And how many more tragedies are yet to be identified?
The LA Times reports: “Blumenthal called for further testimony from Barra to explain the delay in notifying drivers and regulators.
Hilliard’s firm represents about 2,200 individual plaintiffs in cases that he said involve at least 100 deaths.”
“The total number of deaths caused by GM’s conduct will never be known, because their coverup was successful,” Hilliard said. “They covered this up for 10 years. As a result, vehicles are gone, accident records cannot be restored, and no one remembers what car it was that ran that stoplight and caused someone’s death. As a result, a large victim population will never see justice.” Seehttp://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-gm-emails-20141111-story.html
The NY Times reports:
““Delphi is refusing to participate in the cover-up,” said Robert C. Hilliard, one of three lead plaintiffs attorneys in federal multidistrict litigation against G.M. “They are fully and honestly disclosing what we have a right under the rules to know.”
The emails showing the December order were produced by Delphi during discovery in the sweeping federal litigation. Mr. Hilliard obtained permission from Delphi to declassify them. Their existence was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Hilliard said he planned to depose current and former Delphi employees.”
How Much Justice & How Much Safety?
How much safety Americans get in the future is dependent upon how much justice past, present, and future crash victims receive.
As I recently wrote: “The current reality is that GM vehicles are in 10,000 fatal crashes each year in the U.S. About 7,000 are occupants of the GM vehicle and about 3,000 are persons killed in crashes with a GM vehicle.
As I have written, what GM and NHTSA have known since 2007 suggests the problems are bigger than the public knows. Just the number of airbag non-deployment crashes analyzed by GM using OnStar data — and published by NHTSA in 2007 are alarming.
“The number of frontal non-deployment crashes in 2005
amounts to 356 cases, or an average each day of about 1 such non-deployment frontal crash, where airbags met the GM deployment threshold. Unknown is how many of these crashes GM and/or NHTSA investigated for defects, and outcomes since 2005.”
Evidence of NHTSA and GM’s Failures Portend Changes Ahead
The evidence continues to grow. When will we reach a tipping point?
Will there be a settlement that involves just money? Or will there be a settlement that results in fundamental safety changes in both GM and NHTSA for the better?
Hopefully this will result in a substantial step toward meeting Vision Zero goals for the nation, GM, and all auto companies.”
Both Safety & Justice
Whether Americans get the safety they need and deserve depends on how high up the chains of command are investigated in both courts of law and courts of public opinion. Will former GM Chairman and CEO be deposed?
Will former NHTSA Administrator David Strickland be deposed?
Perhaps whistle blowers will add to the growing evidence that allows the public to connect the dots and see the picture of what has been happening to put and keep Americans in danger.
Crowd sourcing of who knew what, when, may be the factor that pushes America over the tipping point to achieve both safety and justice.
Lou
