Category: Blog

Consequences of Defects Include Jail Time – For Drivers Not Corporations


Consequences of Defects Include Jail Time – For Drivers Not Corporations

September, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Having worked on auto safety since 1978, and tried to understand the tragic consequences of crash deaths and injuries on individuals, families and society, I never envisioned wrongful criminal convictions.

Now Corporate Crime Reporter publishes an important article on this little known aspect of crash consequences.  

“By Editor Filed in News  September 4th, 2015 @ 8:13 am

Last month, a judge in Pennsylvania reversed the involuntary manslaughter conviction of LaKisha Ward-Green.

The judge found that a faulty General Motors ignition switch contributed to her crashing into a school bus, killing her boyfriend who was sitting in the passenger seat of the vehicle she was driving.

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In a similar case last year, a judge cleared Candice Anderson in the death of her boyfriend, Gene Mikale Erickson.

Anderson pled guilty to criminally negligent homicide in the case in 2007.

It turned out that the GM ignition switch was involved in the deadly crash.

In 2007, Kuoa Fong Lee was convicted of vehicular homicide and sentenced to eight years in prison for a 2006 crash that killed three people. But Fong Lee was was released from prison in 2010. Lee’s lawyers argued that the 1996 Toyota Camry Lee was driving suddenly accelerated and Lee couldn’t stop it.

“Opponents of white collar criminal prosecutions argue that corporate managers should not be charged criminally for regulatory violations because health, safety, and environmental rules are too complex to understand and violations of such arcane requirements do not cause real harm,” says Rena Steinzor, author of Why Not Jail? Industrial Catastrophes, Corporate Malfeasance, and Government Inaction. “Both arguments are revealed as hypocritical by the criminal prosecutions of three drivers who had fatal accidents as a result of a defect that the manufacturers’ executives covered up. All of these accidents caused fatalities and the drivers were charged with versions of vehicular manslaughter or reckless driving. Only after suffering through great hardship and, in one case, two years in prison, were they exonerated by belated disclosure of corporate malfeasance. The cases are just the latest example of the double standard that prevails between street and white collar crime.”

See

 

FCA Failed To Report More Fatalities


FCA Failed To Report More Fatalities

September, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Automotive News reports:

Ryan Beene Twitter  RSS feed  September 29, 2015 – 2:45 pm ET

WASHINGTON — Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has found “significant” under-reporting of deaths and injuries possibly linked to safety defects in its vehicles, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said today.

FCA informed NHTSA in late July that an internal investigation revealed that the company had under-reported claims and notices of deaths and injuries to the agency as required by U.S. law, NHTSA said.

FCA began the probe after NHTSA notified the automaker of an “apparent discrepancy” in the Early Warning Reporting data that all automakers submit to the agency on a quarterly basis.

“This represents a significant failure to meet a manufacturer’s safety responsibilities,” NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind said in a statement. “NHTSA will take appropriate action after gathering additional information on the scope and causes of this failure.”…

But an audit of NHTSA in June found big deficiencies in the system, including inconsistencies in reporting standards among automakers and haphazard reviews of data by agency investigators. Rosekind has pledged to improve the system.

Earlier this year, American Honda was fined $70 million and agreed to stricter additional oversight after admitting in November 2014 that it failed to report to NHTSA more than 1,700 deaths and injuries that may have been linked to potential defects in its cars. See

http://www.autonews.com/article/20150929/OEM11/150929794/fiat-chrysler-says-it-under-reported-death-injury-claims?cciid=email-autonews-blast

 

GM & U.S. Justice Department To Agree: Neither Safety Nor Justice Advance


GM & U.S. Justice Department To Agree: Neither Safety Nor Justice Advance

September, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

The NY Times reports:

“Federal prosecutors are poised to settle a criminal investigation into General Motors, according to people briefed on the matter, accusing the automaker of failing to disclose a safety defect tied to at least 124 deaths. The case, which the prosecutors plan to unveil on Thursday, would cap a wide-ranging investigation that tainted the automaker’s reputation for quality and safety and damaged its bottom line.

The prosecutors will impose a penalty of nearly $1 billion on G.M., according to people briefed on the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity, but they are not expected to include charges against individual G.M. employees….

In recent months, some G.M. officials expected that the company would pay more than the $1.2 billion paid last year by Toyota for concealing unintended acceleration problems in its vehicles. The company also faced the possibility that it would have to plead guilty to a crime.

Instead, G.M. has agreed to sign a so-called deferred-prosecution agreement, the people said, a deal that effectively amounts to probation for corporations.

Notably, G.M. employees are also expected to avoid indictment, though the investigation will most likely continue, according to the people briefed on the matter. After more than a yearlong inquiry into the defect — which involved faulty ignition switches that could unexpectedly turn off, cutting the engine and disabling airbags — federal prosecutors in Manhattan and theFederal Bureau of Investigation struggled to pin criminal wrongdoing on any one G.M. employee. They concluded instead that the problems stemmed from a collective failure by the automaker….

“If a corporation plays nice and agrees to the terms, then the government gets some nice money, and the victims are just left in the dust,” said Susan Averill, the daughter-in-law of Jean Averill, who was killed in a 2003 crash of a Saturn Ion at the age of 81. Hers was the earliest fatality G.M. connected with the ignition defect. “It doesn’t seem right to me.”…

Laura Christian, the birth mother of 16-year-old Amber Rose, who was killed in a July 2005 crash in Maryland, said she was shocked to hear that G.M. might pay less than Toyota paid to resolve its case.

“That’s giving G.M. and the other auto manufacturers permission to do it again,” Ms. Christian said. “And all of the people who were killed in these crashes, including my daughter, will have lost their lives in vain.”

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/17/business/prosecutors-said-to-be-near-a-criminal-settlement-with-gm.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

Clarence Ditlow notes:“GM killed over a 100 people by knowingly putting a defective ignition switch into over 1 million vehicles.  Yet no one from GM went to jail or was even charged with criminal homicide.  This shows a weakness in the law not a weakness in the facts.  GM killed innocent consumers. GM has paid millions of dollars to its lobbyists to keep criminal penalties out of the Vehicle Safety Act since 1966.  Today thanks to its lobbyists, GM officials walk off scot free while its customers are six feet under.”

Why won’t the Justice Department listen to crash victims?  Revolving Door?
What about the former GM Executives that have been and still are in high positions in government?  See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/blog-nhtsaexec2004.php
Why won’t the Justice Department seek public input before signing away the future of U.S. safety and justice?
How many GM fatalities have not yet been identified?   Note the thousands of GM crash fatalities each year.  See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/MonthlyReportforSeptember2015.pdf How many more fatalities will occur involving the GM defective vehicles still on the roads?
Note the “at least” 124 deaths at $9.2 million each = $1.14 Billion.  See DOT Policy Guidance on value of a life (copy attached).
GM and the “Justice” Department may agree, the public will not.
Presidential candidates and members of Congress in both parties are now rightly talking about the Federal government being corrupted by corporate money.    Thousands of lives are being lost each year in the U.S.A. at a time in history when we have never had more technological ability to end crash violence.  Yet the nation still does not have a Vision Zero goal for deaths and serious injuries in crashes.  Why?

Lou

 

“Batman” Killed in Crash – An Example of Societal Loss


“Batman” Killed in Crash – An Example of Societal Loss

August, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

When people die of crash injuries it results in losses to families and society – forevermore.   Tragically, in many more ways than we know, most stories of crash victims that die or are seriously injured are given brief passing notice by media and society.  Insights into the societal losses are too often missing in the media.

All are important stories.  But some stories illustrate the impact on society more than others.  This is one such story.

“Leonard Robinson, 51, of Owings Mills, retired after selling a commercial cleaning company he founded. He then spent his time dressing as Batman, visiting and lifting the spirits of sick children in hospitals for more than a decade

Robinson was hit by a car Sunday night in western Maryland after his custom vehicle—a Batmobile replica—had engine trouble and stopped partly in the fast lane on Interstate 70, Maryland State Police reported.”

 

Chrysler Class Action Settlement & NHTSA Criticized by CAS


Chrysler Class Action Settlement & NHTSA Criticized by CAS

August, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

The Center for Auto Safety has issued the following release:

 TIPM Class Action Settlement Approved With Rental Car & Full Repair Reimbursment

       CAS Criticizes NHTSA for Violating Safety Act & Not Knowing Chrysler Misled Agency 

On August 17, 2015, a California District Court approved a landmark settlement in Velasco v. Chrysler Group LLC that obtained full reimbursement for the $1,100 to $1,200 repair cost of a TIPM-7 module and for the cost of rental – far beyond the $100 to $200 replacement cost of a fuel relay in the safety recall.  The Settlement Agreement signed by Chrysler shows the settlement agreement was reached in January 2015 and was contingent on Chrysler doing a safety recall of 2012-13 Grand Cherokees and Durangos.  The class action forced the recall.  NHTSA never opened an investigation into stalling on 2011-13 Chrysler SUVs for stalling caused by a defective TIPM-7 module despite the part going on national backorder in 2013.

The Safety Act requires NHTSA to grant or deny a defect petition in 120 days. NHTSA took 337 days to deny CAS’ Defect Petition, failed to obtain a single document from Velasco including ones that showed Chrysler began an investigation more than a year earlier than it told NHTSA, and used the 337 days to construct a strawman denial of the CAS Petition.

Statement of Clarence Ditlow

 #     #     #

Related Documents:

CAS Letter to NHTSA – 8/18/15

Click here to view the Petition for Defect Investigation – 8/21/14

NHTSA Denial of CAS Petition for Defect Investigation – 7/24/15

Velasco v. Chrysler Proposed Settlement Agreement – 6/10/15

Velasco v. Chrysler Settlement Approval – 8/17/15

CAS TIPM Information Page 

 

GM Feinberg Ignition Switch Compensation Program Denies 91% of Claims


GM Feinberg Ignition Switch Compensation Program Denies 91% of Claims

August, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:
As of August 21, 2015, the Feinberg GM Ignition Compensation Claims Resolution Facility reported that it denied 91% of the 4,343 claims received. 
For 473 fatality claims, Feinberg deemed 124 “eligible” and 349 (74%) “ineligible”.
For 279 Category One (Quadriplegia, Paraplegia, Double Amputations, Permanent Brain Damage, or Pervasive Burns) claims, Feinberg deemed 17 “eligible” and 262 (94%) “ineligible”.
For 3,591 Category Two (Physical injuries requiring hospitalization , or outpatient medical treatment, within 48 hours of the accident) claims, Feinberg deemed 258 “eligible” and 3,333 (93%) “ineligible”.
For the Total Claims 4,343 counted by Feinberg, 399 were deemed “eligible” and 3,944 (91%) “ineligible”.  
As I wrote in my December 2014 Report delays, denials, obfuscations, and minimization by corporations and governmental agencies endanger us all – past, present, and future crash victims.  See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/MonthlyReportforDecember2014.pdf
As I also wrote in June 2014, the amount of the compensation for victims planned was less than the $9.1 million value called for in the U.S. DOT Policy Guidance for each statistical life.  Seehttps://www.careforcrashvictims.com/blog-feinberg-comp.php
If the GM Feinberg plan paid out $9 million to each of the 124 fatalities that Feinberg deemed eligible the total would exceed $1 Billion.
A series of recent reports noted the final statistics of the GM Feinberg program.  See:
In July of this year Bloomberg reported on cases were not included under the GM Feinberg plan.  See 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-01/gm-fund-excludes-scores-hurt-or-killed-in-cars-with-switch-flaw

And today we learn of a judicial ruling overturning a conviction of involuntary manslaughter for a driver involved in a fatal GM ignition switch crash in September 2010 that killed 16 year old Robert Chambers.  See attached press announcement.
There are many stories of tragedies past, present, and future that need to be discovered and told so that fewer tragedies occur in the future.
Lou