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Lawmakers Press Takata on Propellant in Airbags JUNE 2, 2015Takata’s Airbag Recall a Result of Converging Forces MAY 20, 2015 Takata Expects Return to Profit Despite Facing Airbag LawsuitsMAY 8, 2015

“Honda deeply regrets that mailed notification appears to have not reached Ms. Langlinais prior to her crash,” Chris Martin, a spokesman for the automaker, said in a statement.

Mr. Martin said the scale of the recalls and a lack of replacement parts prompted the automaker to prioritize servicing vehicles registered in “humid” regions like Florida, Hawaii and Puerto Rico, considered by Takata and federal regulators to be at highest risk of an inflater rupture.

Honda mailed out the first notifications to drivers in those areas in September. Notices to other regions, including Louisiana, were not immediately mailed out.”  See

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/13/business/honda-links-a-rupturing-takata-airbag-to-a-7th-death.html?_r=0

That is just for the expected deaths does not include values for injuries and other losses.  For the calendar year 2010 total societal losses were estimated in a NHTSA Report to amount to $836 billion.  See http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812013.pdf

The NY Times reports on the House Hearing:

“Can you guarantee that as long as ammonium nitrate is used in those products that the products are safe?” asked Joseph P. Kennedy III, Democrat of Massachusetts.

“We believe that when properly manufactured and designed, ammonium nitrate — phase-stabilized ammonium nitrate — can be done properly,” Mr. Kennedy of Takata said. He was referring to one of the changes the company’s engineers had made to stabilize the compound to prevent it from breaking down. Takata’s new design would alter the shape of the propellant wafers, but not the composition.

He acknowledged the concerns with the propellant, and added that Takata’s use of ammonium nitrate “would go down significantly.” He also noted that Takata was continuing to investigate the compound as one of the causes of the airbags’ failure.

Some lawmakers questioned why the compound should be used at all, given the circumstances.

“Why would I buy a car that has a potentially dangerous airbag?” said Jan Schakowsky, Democrat of Illinois. “I’m not understanding.”

Mr. Kennedy urged some patience. “In a vehicle, it’s not as easy as changing the color of the car,” he said.  See

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/03/business/takata-hearing-airbag-recall.html?ref=business

Please read this excellent blog of life or death importance by Nader.https://blog.nader.org/2015/07/02/enough-stop-more-giant-truck-trailers-on-your-highways/

“WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Marshall has ordered Dallas-based Trinity Industries to pay $683 million in a whistleblower case that accused the company of defrauding the U.S. government.

Trinity said it plans to appeal the order by U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap.

“The company believes the evidence clearly shows that no fraud was committed,” Trinity said in a statement Tuesday evening. “The judgment is erroneous and should be reversed in its entirety.”

Gilstrap’s judgment caps a 2012 suit brought under the federal False Claims Act by whistleblower Joshua Harman, a former competitor of Trinity’s. Harman alleged that Trinity committed fraud when it continued to sell its popular guardrail system, known as ET-Plus, after making small changes to its design without first telling the Federal Highway Administration.

In October, a seven-member federal jury in Marshall agreed. It pegged the damages to the highway agency to be $175 million.

The statute automatically triples those damages when a whistleblower proves his or her case. Gilstrap also fined Trinity $138.4 million. Each of its more than 16,000 transactions involving the guardrails carried a fine of $8,250.

In addition, he ordered the company to pay nearly $20 million to cover Harman’s legal fees and costs.

The FHWA refused to join Harman’s suit, and said in a statement after it was filed that even though it should have been told of the changes, the changes Trinity made to the guardrails were not big enough to have caused the agency to stop reimbursing states that bought them.

That resistance will cost the U.S. government plenty. Because the FHWA had refused to back Harman’s claims, he’ll get to keep 30 percent of the total, or $199 million.”  See

Professor of Law Rena Steinzor, author of the new book “Why Not Jail?” has written an article soon to be published in an issue of the Harvard Law and Policy Review.

Finally!  There is now hope for safety progress from NHTSA once again.