Blog Archives - Page 25 of 115 - Care For Crash Victims

Seat Back Failure Tragedies – Safety Delayed for Decades

November, 2016

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

An excellent article in Forbes shows how auto companies have stalled government safety actions for decades – especially during both the Bush and Obama administrations – after the dangers of seat-back failures were made clear.

One illuminating factor in this reporting is that it goes beyond statistics of the deaths, but also addresses the suffering of tragic injuries. “Thomas Comella and Victoria Thomas have suffered so much already it would be best for them not to know that three legislators are now telling federal regulators that the seat backs in American vehicles are too weak and can easily collapse in rear-impact crashes.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Sen. Edward Markey of Massachusetts and Rep. Diana Degette of Colorado say the failure of seat backs can cause the driver or front-seat passenger to be flung into the back seat, suffering serious injuries or killing a child seated back there.

The Senators say the federal safety standard – adopted in 1972 – must be upgraded.

Comella and Thomas have known that for almost two decades.

It was how their worlds ended.

Comella, 50, was driving a minivan outside of Cleveland in 1999 when traffic slowed. His vehicle was hit from behind. He remembers the impact being slight, similar to getting bumped by one of those Dodgem bumper cars at an amusement park.

But his seat back broke. The seat belt no longer held him because seat belts are designed to keep occupants from being thrown forward. When he hit the back seat he suffered a spinal injury that left him blind and paralyzed except for the very limited use of his arms.”

Thomas was 19 in 1997 when her car slid backwards into a pole, striking with a force estimated at about 11 miles per hour. The seat back broke. She suffered a spinal injury that paralyzed her legs.

I talked to Comella and Thomas and wrote about seat-back failures 15 years ago when I was covering automotive safety for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland. I’ll post the full story below; but the short version is that way back then seat-back failure was a well-known issue and safety researchers said there were solutions.” See http://www.forbes.com/sites/jensen/2016/11/29/seat-back-collapse-15-years-later-feds-still-fail-to-address-a-deadly-problem/#7f0e4026585b

For more on seat-back failures see https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/blog/blog-deadlyseatbacks/

Lou

Thankful

November, 2016

Dear Care for crash Victims Community Members:

On this Thanksgiving day, some of the people I am especially thankful for having worked with include the following:

* Joan Claybrook

* Clarence Ditlow

* Ralph Nader

* Ben Kelley

* Mike Lemov

* Carl Nash

* Jackie Gillan

* Judith Lee Stone

* Marianne Karth

* Cally Houck

* Stella Gurr

In thanks, here is a single post I just received from Marianne Karth that we should all be thankful for as it encourages us all to continue to do better. Please see http://annaleahmary.com/2016/11/so-why-arent-we-making-a-bigger-dent-in-tragic-crashes-america-we-can-do-better-than-this/

Lou Lombardo

Trust Your Government To Do The Right Thing?

October, 2016

Dear Care For Crash Victims Community Members:

The Problem Nader has said: “This country has far more problems than it deserves and far more solutions than it applies.”

The U.S.A. continues to face vehicle violence problems resulting in:

* 100 deaths per day – and rising

* 400 serious injuries per day

* Losses valued by DOT at about $2 Billion per day

The U.S. has more safety technology available than ever before in history.

And yet the Obama Administration has failed for nearly 8 years – and nearly 250,000 deaths due to vehicle violence – to set a national Vision Zero Goal. For example, Volvo has set such a goal for zero deaths in or by a new Volvo by the year 2020. Why?

Where is the hope and change for the better, that President Obama promised us?

Happy People

My recent article on the DOT NHTSA Revolving Door brought me the attached photo of DOT NHTSA and Auto Company Executives. Lots of smiles as the Obama Administration comes to a close.

Some in the media have noted the Revolving Door and coziness of regulators and the “regulated”. Seehttp://www.fairwarning.org/2016/06/self-driving-cars/

But not enough people know about the specific problems of vehicle violence and how government has failed to protect them.

Unhappy People

What percentage of the American people think that they can trust their government to do the right thing?

The Pew Poll reports: The public’s trust in the federal government continues to be at historically low levels. Only 19% of Americans today say they can trust the government in Washington to do what is right “just about always” (3%) or “most of the time” (16%). See http://www.people-press.org/2015/11/23/1-trust-in-government-1958-2015/

Reminds me of the lyrics “The country’s in the very best of hands” See http://www.allmusicals.com/lyrics/lilabner/thecountrysintheverybestofhands.htm

Lou Lombardo

Marianne Karth Participates in Nader Conference On Tort Law & Breaking Through Power

October, 2016

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Marianne Karth, mother who lost two daughters in a crash, writes an eloquent summary of what she learned at this Conference.

Marianne has a dream that all Americans can be spared her family tragedy.“Here’s to the realization of my dream of a nationwide network of mobilized traffic safety community advocacy groups to educate and empower citizens to take back their right to a day in court as one more strategy to help us realize the vision of moving toward zero preventable deaths and serious injuries from vehicle violence.”

See http://annaleahmary.com/2016/10/ralph-nader-conference-highlights-tort-law-benefits-tort-reforms-assault-on-right-to-day-in-court/

Marianne’s dream should become the dream of all Americans – before tragedy strikes their families.

Motor vehicle violence in the U.S.A. currently results in:

* 100 deaths per day

* 400 serious injuries per day i.e. brain, spinal cord, burns, amputations, etc.

* $2 Billion in losses per day in the U.S.A. today.

Before this clear and present danger happens to you and yours, adopt her dream and make it yours.

The Conference info and some video is available athttps://www.breakingthroughpower.org/

Lou Lombardo

Center for Auto Safety Comments on VW Diesel Scandal Settlement

October, 2016

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

“CAS Staff Attorney Michael Brooks:

“It is great news that VW diesel owners can now be reimbursed, and that Volkswagen must begin to repair the environmental damage their emissions deception caused. However, automakers will not change their illegal behavior unless the government pursues significant criminal penalties against executives who take or condone such actions. We look forward to news of federal criminal charges against the VW executives who participated in this fraud on the American public.”

Safe Climate Campaign Director Dan Becker:

“The government did a good job preventing further harm from VW’s diesel fraud. Most heavily polluting diesels will be removed from the road and cannot be resold unless fixed. Other automakers must learn from this scandal that they dare not disable pollution controls, lie to the government or fleece consumers. Those lessons will be reinforced when the government brings criminal charges against VW officals who perpetrated this fraud.”” See

http://www.autosafety.org/cas-statement-on-volkswagen-15-billion-emissions-settlement/

Center for Auto Safety Wins For the People In Court Decision on Chrysler Secrecy

October, 2016

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Please see the following article on important victory by Clarence Ditlow and the CAS to unseal FCA documents.

http://www.nationallawjournal.com/id=1202769118747/Chrysler-Loses-Supreme-Court-Fight-Over-Sealed-Documents?slreturn=20160904095005

Chrysler Group LLC’s battle with the Center for Auto Safety to keep sealed certain documents relating to an alleged defect in several vehicle models ended Mondaywhen the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the automaker’s appeal.

In FCA US v. Center for Auto Safety, the company had asked the justices whether the “good cause” necessary to place discovery documents under a protective order was sufficient to keep them sealed.

“While FCA US is disappointed that the Supreme Court declined review, we look forward to presenting our case in the district court,” a Chrysler spokesman said.

In November 2013, several car owners sued Chrysler over the alleged power-system defect. Concerned that thousands of drivers might experience power-system failures, they sought a preliminary injunction ordering Chrysler to warn customers. Almost all of the evidence submitted by the car owners in support of the motion was sealed, as was evidence in opposition offered by Chrysler.

When the district court denied the motion, the Center for Auto Safety moved to intervene in the suit to seek the unsealing of the documents associated with the preliminary injunction motion.

The district court refused again to unseal the documents, saying that the “compelling reasons” standard that ordinarily applies to court records does not apply to non-dispositive motions, so preliminary-injunction motions may be sealed under a lower “good cause” standard.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit disagreed. The appeals court said the public’s right to access court records extends to preliminary injunctions and those records can only be sealed for compelling reasons.

In June, the Center for Auto Safety noted on its website that the Ninth Circuit’s decision was cited by U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel in San Diego when he unsealed documents in the Trump University real estate school lawsuit.

Chrysler’s petition, filed by Thomas Dupree of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, had drawn support from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Washington Legal Foundation and other business groups. The Center for Auto Safety was represented in the high court by Leslie Bailey and Jennifer Bennett of Public Justice in Oakland.

Update: This story was updated with comment from FCA Group.

Contact Marcia Coyle at mcoyle@alm.com. On Twitter: @MarciaCoyle.

DOT Waffles on Ethical and Safety Issues of Autonomous Vehicles

October, 2016

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Mike Lemov has written an Op-Ed published in The Hill.

“On Sept. 20, the Department of Transportation, by law our primary national traffic safety enforcement agency, issued its long awaited “guidelines” for the development and sale of driverless cars. The Department attempted, Solomon-like, to balance its guidance between ensuring public safety and promoting the speedy development of driverless cars (called “Highly Automated Vehicles”) for use on our roadways.

For all its fanfare, DOT’s guidance failed to achieve its primary mission of ensuring safety.

DOT and its delegate agency NHTSA did not issue any new enforceable safety regulations for driverless vehicles, at least for the present. It did not propose any premarketing standards or requirements for automated cars, except to say it will shortly ask all producers of driverless cars and component systems to answer a comprehensive questionnaire about their proposed designs and test methods. Absent was any commitment by the federal government to actually regulate the new cars before they are sold to the public for use on public roads.

The omission is discouraging and could prove dangerous, particularly in view of the current record of partially automated vehicles getting into accidents. Some of these crashes have been deadly. It seems as if the guidelines were designed to preempt states such as California which already has issued enforceable safety regulations, such as requiring a driver and a steering wheel in all vehicles.

The Department did warn producers that the current penalties for not reporting a safety related defect publicly would apply to the automated cars, despite the weakness of the current penalties and the agency’s failure to force reporting of past lethal dangers of non-driverless cars, such as Toyota’s sudden acceleration, General Motors’s ignition shut off problem and Takata’s exploding airbags. In all these cases, and many more, the lack of adequate federal civil and any criminal sanctions apparently induced manufacturers to gamble on not reporting the accidents, even while people were being injured and killed.

The ethical and safety issues raised by the Department’s waffle are troubling.” Seehttp://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/technology/302647-driverless-cars-ethics-and-public-safety

Hopefully, Congress will look into the ethical and safety failures of DOT officials who have allowed the rising rate of crash victims in the U.S.A. today:

* 100 deaths per day

* 400 serious injuries per day

* $2 Billion in losses per day

Lou Lombardo