Category: Blog

Some Good News: NHTSA Recommends Legal Sunshine in 21st Century


Some Good News: NHTSA Recommends Legal Sunshine in 21st Century

March, 2016

Dear Care For Crash Victims Community Members:
NHTSA Notice of Guidelines Summary states:

“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

 

Safety Leader Cally Houck Sends Strong Letter to DNC


Safety Leader Cally Houck Sends Strong Letter to DNC

March, 2016

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Cally Houck, mother who became a Safety Leader after losing two daughters in a tragic unfixed defective rental car, has allowed publication of her views.   She has written a strong letter to the DNC.“I am solid Bernie.    Here’s why:

 My Letter to the DNC
 It’s time to start thinking about the candidate the people overwhelmingly want. You will not be able to shove your candidate down our throats. You are an institution that will shoot itself in the foot in order to coronate a candidate mistrusted by everyone but the myopic and entrenched elites and others who won’t see through the fog and address the front runner’s abysmal record. I for one, will abandon my political affiliation for the first time in my 42 years of voting. I’m tired of a party that ignores the voices of so many. I’m done with cronyism politics that serve only to acquire power and money, in sordid backroom deals. I will not be silent as our country continues to devolve into a consolidation of power, wealth and indifference to the needs of the people, of which they are sworn to represent. . I am one of hundreds of thousands who feel what I feel;  the current political system is rigged, corrupt and our representatives, for the most part,  turn a deaf ear to the voices of the American People, who have started to rise up to end the status quo which has done nothing to fix the problems of our country. The current favored candidate of the DNC is a woman who brokered arms and weapons, including chemical and biological weapons, to countries that have repressive regimes, in exchange for donations to the Clinton Foundation.  I will not tolerate a candidate under a justified federal investigation.  I will not accept voter suppression and election fraud..  You either listen to us or go down in the flames of obscurity. One more thing. If the DNC and Bernie’s opponent engaged in honest politics and run a clean campaign, instead of rigging the system, campaigning violations, dishonesty, she may have had a chance to save party, and honestly win the nomination, inspite of my support for Bernie, Months ago, I would have voted for her if she was named the nominee. But when I saw the level of deceit, flagrant polling violations and abuses at polling and caucus sites, disenfranchising voters by her and her husband and their campaign puppets, purchasing super delegates, and taking millions in corporate donations, she lost my potential vote. Now all I see is a woman with no integrity, no vision, no honor and no conscience. She just wants to win at the expense of the American people’s right to choose. I will change my party affiliation at the end of the convention, unless Bernie is the nominee, as will thousands and thousands, and thousands of Dems who believe in justice, authentic democracy, morality and fairness. It’s time to reinvent the political party system.
Cally Houck” 
Lou

 


“It’s the corruption, stupid”

March, 2016

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Why does the Obama Administration fail to protect Americans from crash injuries and adopt a Vision Zero Goal for the nation?

It is becoming clearer to more Americans that it is the corruption.  Read article “It’s the corruption, stupid…”

“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

 

Fatal Seat Back Failures, Pressure Grows For Stronger and Safer Seats, Tragedies Will Continue

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Crash victims demand safety

1. Media educates the public.  Watch videohttp://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-news-investigation-of-seat-back-failures-sparks-action-by-congress/

2.  Progressive legislators provides pressure.  See letters

http://www.markey.senate.gov/letters-to-automakers-on-seatback-safety

3.  Reporters investigate.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-25/crash-test-dummies-get-in-back-seat-to-make-uber-riders-safer

4.  Auto Safety Advocates Build the Case >

http://www.autosafety.org/nhtsa-urged-to-warn-parents-of-seat-back-failure-dangers-to-children-in-rear-seats/

It is now up to citizens to voice their views as voters and consumers.

The tragedies will continue until the pressure builds to ends these senseless deaths and injuries.

Lou

Lives Matter vs. Money Matters


Lives Matter vs. Money Matters

March, 2016

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members”

More evidence of the rigged system where money matters more than lives.

Lives Matter Citizens petitioned NHTSA in January, 2016 to save nearly 100 lives per year based on NHTSA research on automatic emergency braking technologies.  See

Money Matters
NHTSA, IIHS, and Automakers have agreed to install automatic braking technologies on a voluntary basis by the year 2022.   Seehttp://www.nhtsa.gov/About+NHTSA/Press+Releases/nhtsa-iihs-commitment-on-aeb-03172016
What’s Wrong?
See Joan Claybrook’s straight talk below:

Statement of Joan Claybrook, Former NHTSA Administrator, on Automatic Emergency Brakes

With today’s announcement on Automatic Emergency Brakes (AEB), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has failed the public by cutting a secret deal with auto makers for a voluntary unenforceable standard.  In recent years, the agency also failed the public with secret meetings with auto companies about deadly defects it took years to recall.  Enough is enough. Let the public in.

In 1966 Congress created NHTSA, authorizing issuance of mandatory vehicle safety standards, saying this was necessary because voluntary industry standards don’t work.

Fifty years later, in 2016, NHTSA has abrogated its responsibility to the public by excluding suppliers and the public and secretly supporting auto company voluntary installation of AEB.  The agency/industry deal allows six to nine years for installation even though about half of the most popular 2016 models already offer AEB.  This deal could slow down rather than speed up additional installation.  NHTSA itself says its mandatory vehicle standards have saved over 600,000 lives.

Further, the performance requirements agreed to by NHTSA and auto companies are still secret and thus the public cannot comment on or evaluate them.   A voluntary standard is not enforceable and it is insane to trust auto companies given the string of cover-ups and defect failures in recent years.   Auto companies can impose excessive prices on optional AEB systems, linking their availability to other expensive add-ons like heated steering wheels, thus excluding lower-bracket buyers.

Reverting to voluntary standards undermines NHTSA’s credibility, thwarts innovation that mandatory regulation encourages, discourages new NHTSA research and receipt of Congressional funding, and allows the auto companies to secretly set the terms of the standard to accommodate their production and financial investments in new vehicles. 

NHTSA should do its job and propose a mandatory AEB safety standard in response to the petition filed in January 2016 by consumer groups. 

 

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So when Government and Industry get together money and power will prevail and people will die and suffer injuries.  
It is an election year America.  Ask yourselves: Will we be better off in 2022 with this Obama Administration action or with safety policies advocated by citizen groups?
Based on my 50 years work in Washington, I believe the answer is better with the citizen groups.  We need automatic emergency brakes on government corruption.
Lou