Category: Blog

GM Continues Efforts To Avoid Responsibilities For Ignition Switch Deaths, Injuries, and Losses

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Our Past:

The Wall St. Journal reports on the latest legal maneuver by GM in the long saga of minimizing justice for crash victims.  The saga has been documented by the Center for Auto Safety at http://www.autosafety.org/general-motors-ignition-switch-recalls-homepage/

Our Present:

The Wall St. Journal, in an excellent article, reports:

“GM Continues to Seek Shield From Ignition-Switch Suits

Auto maker challenging July appeals court ruling that denied its efforts to use its 2009 bankruptcy to block lawsuits over the defective ignition switches

By Tom Corrigan
Aug. 11, 2016 5:44 p.m. ET

General Motors Co. sought a rehearing of an appeals court ruling that exposes it to hundreds of potential lawsuits and some $10 billion in liabilities from faulty ignition switches.
Lawyers for the nation’s largest auto maker on Wednesday said the court made two “fundamental errors” when it last month ruled against the company’s efforts to use its 2009 bankruptcy to shield itself from the litigation over the ignition switches.
The decision “makes no sense and is flatly contrary to the bankruptcy code and decisions from other courts,” the Detroit auto maker said. GM said the court’s decision, if not reversed, would permanently damage the bankruptcy process that saved it from collapse in 2009.
The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan denied GM’s attempt to use its bankruptcy to block lawsuits seeking potential claims over the defective ignition switches, which have been linked to 124 deaths. The ruling overturned a bankruptcy judge’s earlier decision to bar claims that arose before its chapter 11 filing.

Steve Berman, a plaintiffs’ lawyer involved in the GM litigation, said the Second Circuit rarely grants requests for a rehearing, and noted the court’s decision was unanimous”.  See  http://www.wsj.com/articles/gm-continues-to-seek-shield-from-ignition-switch-suits-1470951862?mod=itp&mod=djemITP_h

Our Future:
Remember that many crash victims were left out of any compensation and the number of victims is likely to grow as unfixed vehicles are still on the roads endangering people.  See http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-01/gm-fund-excludes-scores-hurt-or-killed-in-cars-with-switch-flaw
Will justice ever prevail?
Lou Lombado
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____________________Lou Lombardowww.CareForCrashVictims.com

NBC Gets NHTSA to Investigate Hollywood “Topless” Tour Bus 15 Passenger Vans

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

NBC has moved NHTSA to investigate an obvious safety problem.

“The federal government is now investigating one of the most famous tours in the world because of an NBC4 investigation. The I-Team series documented potential safety hazards of Hollywood tour buses, including showing how some seatbelts have been modified or removed altogether. The series also looked at how the buses have been customized so that they are “topless,” leading experts and officials to question their ability to protect passengers in the event of an accident.

The United States Department of Transportation has mailed certified letters to more than two dozen tour bus companies stating it believes the convertible tour buses lining Hollywood Boulevard are not safe and should not be taking passengers anywhere.”

Lou Lombardo

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____________________Lou Lombardowww.CareForCrashVictims.com

NHTSA Counts 2015 Fatalities: 7.2% increase to 35,092 American Deaths

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

NHTSA notes “The last single-year increase of this magnitude was in 1966, when fatalities rose 8.1% from the previous year.”

And “In response to the increase, DOT, NHTSA, and the White House are issuing an unprecedented call to action to involve a wide range of stakeholders in helping determine the causes of the increase.”  

See http://www.nhtsa.gov/About+NHTSA/Press+Releases/traffic-fatalities-2015

President Obama in his final months in office should carefully consider his legacy of the nearly 250,000 American deaths and nearly 1 million serious injuries due to vehicle violence – all while he has been President.  See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/MonthlyReportforJanuary2016-Corrected.pdf

Lou Lombardo

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____________________Lou Lombardowww.CareForCrashVictims.com

NHTSA Counts Additional Vehicle Violence Deaths Occurring At Rate of 5 per Day Off Public Roads

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

New NHTSA data released on Non-Traffic “off the public traffic ways.”   These statistics are in addition to the NHTSA counts of deaths along public roads of more than 90 deaths per day on average.  New Non-Traffic Statistics:  Deaths average about 5 per day.  Injuries average about 250 per day.

Crash*Stats “Non-Traffic Surveillance: Fatality and Injury Statistics in Non-Traffic Crashes, 2012 to 2014” (DOT HS 812 311):   Non-traffic motor vehicle crashes are a class of crashes that occur off the public traffic ways.  These crashes are mostly single-vehicle crashes on private roads, two-vehicle crashes in parking facilities, or collisions with pedestrians in driveways. This publication focuses only on non-traffic crashes and presents some salient statistics about occupants and nonoccupants killed and injured in such crashes from 2012 to 2014. An average of 1,898 people were killed each year in non-traffic motor vehicle crashes during the 3-year period 2012 to 2014. About a third (34%) of those people killed were nonoccupants such as pedestrians and bicyclists. Additionally, 92,000 people were injured in these crashes each year, of which a third (33%) were nonoccupants.These statistics are in addition to the NHTSA counts of deaths along public roads of more than 90 deaths per day on average.  See https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/812240
People concerned with crash deaths and injuries wonder why presidential candidates are not mentioning vehicle violence but do mention gun violence.  Both deserve national solutions.
Lou
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____________________Lou Lombardowww.CareForCrashVictims.com

NY Times Op Ed: “The Real Crime Is What’s Not Done”

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Here’s an Op Ed that the NY Times has published that is germane to the plight of crash victims – past, present, and future.

It concludes:

“The injustice of the Flint contamination and other safety disasters demand a meaningful response. Criminal law is not the right tool for the job.”
I do not agree with that conclusion!  Criminal law is the most underutilized tool in democracy’s tool box.  The NY Times did not even allow its readers to comment.
Our community needs to address this Op Ed.  Otherwise the deaths and injuries of all victims will continue without end.
Lou
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____________________Lou Lombardowww.CareForCrashVictims.com

National Safety Council Releases Statistics on Increasing Deaths and Deadly “National Complacency”

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

The National Safety Council has released shocking new numbers for vehicle violence.

Motor Vehicle Fatalities Up 9%; No Sign of a Decrease in 2016, says National Safety Council

If trend continues, U.S. may see its deadliest driving year since 2007 and deadliest Labor Day since 2008.

​ Itasca, IL – Preliminary estimates from the National Safety Council indicate motor vehicle deaths were 9% higher through the first six months of 2016 than in 2015, and 18% higher than two years ago at the six month mark. An estimated 19,100 people have been killed on U.S. roads since January – enough to fill 382 school buses[i] – and 2.2 million were seriously injured[ii]. The total estimated cost of these deaths and injuries is $205 billion.

The upward trend began in late 2014 and shows no signs of decreasing. Last winter, the National Safety Council issued its largest year-over-year percentage increase in 50 years, when it estimated fatalities had jumped 8% in 2015 compared to 2014. The continued rise in fatalities is prompting the Council to issue its highest fatality estimate for the Labor Day holiday period since 2008. NSC estimates 438 people will be killed during the three-day holiday weekend.[iii]

“Our complacency is killing us,” said Deborah A.P. Hersman, president and CEO of the National Safety Council. “One hundred deaths every day should outrage us. Americans should demand change to prioritize safety actions and protect ourselves from one of the leading causes of preventable death.” I have added bold for emphasis of this important statement.

Source:

Money At Root of Takata s Tragic History

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

NY Times publishes an excellent article on victims of vehicle violence due to air bag defects known for more than a decade.

“In the late 1990s, General Motors got an unexpected and enticing offer. A little-known Japanese supplier, Takata, had designed a much cheaper automotive airbag.

G.M. turned to its airbag supplier — the Swedish-American company Autoliv — and asked it to match the cheaper design or risk losing the automaker’s business, according to Linda Rink, who was a senior scientist at Autoliv assigned to the G.M. account at the time.

But when Autoliv’s scientists studied the Takata airbag, they found that it relied on a dangerously volatile compound in its inflater, a critical part that causes the airbag to expand.

“We just said, ‘No, we can’t do it. We’re not going to use it,’” said Robert Taylor, Autoliv’s head chemist until 2010.

Today, that compound is at the heart of the largest automotive safety recall in history. At least 14 people have been killed and more than 100 have been injured by faulty inflaters made by Takata. More than 100 million of its airbags have been installed in cars in the United States by General Motors and 16 other automakers.

Details of G.M.’s decision-making process almost 20 years ago, which has not been reported previously, suggest that a quest for savings of just a few dollars per airbag compromised a critical safety device, resulting in passenger deaths. The findings also indicate that automakers played a far more active role in the prelude to the crisis: Rather than being the victims of Takata’s missteps, automakers pressed their suppliers to put cost before all else.”

NY Times also publishes a useful article on what consumers can and should know and do.“Defective airbags made by Takata have been tied to at least 14 deaths and more than 100 injuries. The ensuing recall — the largest in automotive history — has turned out to be messy, confusing and frustrating for car owners.” http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/business/takata-airbag-recall-guide.html
These stories need to be widely shared.  They give us all useful information on the root of vehicle violence: money.
Lou
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____________________Lou Lombardowww.CareForCrashVictims.com