Category: Blog

Progress on Uncovering Deadly Defect Information

June, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

For many years the Center for Auto Safety (CAS) has had to fight both the NHTSA and the auto companies to reveal for the public deadly defect information – as required by law.  Delay at Justice Department – see the 2011 CAS letters to the Justice Department seeking transparency for Death and Injury Inquiries (DI’s) athttp://www.autosafety.org/cas-letter-attorney-general-eric-holder-re-nhtsa-freedom-information-act-and-transparency-0Denial at NHTSA – see 2012 CAS Letter to NHTSA Administrator Strickland (before the Administrator resigned and exited through the NHTSA revolving door to join a law firm representing auto industry clients) at http://www.autosafety.org/sites/default/files/imce_staff_uploads/Strickland%20No%20More%20DI%20FOIAs%208-3-12.pdf 

Lou

The Center for Auto Safety, DOT, and Senators Markey and Blumenthal on NHTSA’s Recall Program

June, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Please see the latest releases.

Statement on NHTSA’s Path Forward for Defect InvestigationsClarence M. Ditlow, Executive Director

June 5, 2015

NHTSA’s critical self-assessment of its defect investigation and recall process is a crucial first step toward restoring the integrity of the agency’s enforcement process and the ability to hold the auto industry accountable for defects that kill and injure. The assessment calls for a new paradigm in funding and resources to match the dramatic increase in the number of vehicles on the road and the increasing sophisticated technology in vehicles. The assessment also sets into motion new internal processes to correct deficiencies in agency procedures that missed defects like GM ignition switch, Jeep fuel tank and Takata airbag inflators.

Whether the Path Forward succeeds depends on two crucial factors.  First, Congress must approve the funding and resources required for NHTSA’s New Paradigm. NHTSA can go only so far on ideals alone.  Second, NHTSA must become transparent for the public to see the new reforms in action.  NHTSA in the 1970’s with a more adequate budget and aggressive enforcement was much like the New Paradigm in the Path Forward. But as funding decreased and secrecy increased in the 1980’s and beyond, the agency became a weak enforcer and mass vehicle defects became common behind closed doors.

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         Markey, Blumenthal Statement on NHTSA’s “Path Forward”

·      Transportation Sec. Foxx announces formation of new NHTSA safety teams

 Clarence Ditlow

Executive Director

Center for Auto Safety

1825 Connecticut Ave NW #330

Washington DC 20009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 Contact: Giselle Barry (Markey) 202-224-2742

Josh Zembik (Blumenthal) 202-224-6452

Markey, Blumenthal Statement on NHTSA’s “Path Forward”

In wake of GM recall, Senators introduced legislation to increase transparency and earlier reporting of auto defects

Washington (June 5, 2015) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), members of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, released the following joint statement after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration today made public reports and initiatives that address failings in its GM ignition switch investigation and other safety efforts. Senators Markey and Blumenthal have been leading the Senate investigation into the GM ignition switch recall that has been linked to at least 100 deaths.  GM has admitted to knowing for at least a decade about the ignition switch defect in Chevy Cobalts and Saturn Ions that led to the massive recall, and NHTSA failed to connect the dots using accident reports and other information it had to more quickly and aggressively investigate the defect.

“We are pleased that NHTSA has acknowledged neglecting critical information that should have moved it to take action much earlier on faulty GM ignition switches that were killing drivers and passengers for years. Unfortunately, for more than a decade, NHTSA failed to address the information and evidence it had in its own database linking defective ignition switch to fatal accidents. It is incumbent upon Administrator Rosekind to put in place permanent measures necessary to prevent another tragedy like this from ever happening again.  Those measures must include a requirement that the types of secret documents that NHTSA had access to are made public, and the enactment of our legislation that requires more information to be reported to NHTSA’s Early Warning Reporting database when auto manufacturers first become aware of incidents involving fatalities.”

In one of the reports released today, NHTSA acknowledged that it had requested a Death Inquiry (DI) document from GM related to the death of two Wisconsin teenagers. That document, which was received by NHTSA in 2007 but kept secret by both GM and NHTSA, was first made public by Senator Markey on May 7, 2014. It included a report by the Wisconsin State Patrol Academy that highlighted the ignition switch defect as preventing the airbags from deploying. The report also references other reports of similar problems that the Wisconsin investigators uncovered and noted that these investigators had obtained the 2005 GM Technical Service Bulletin that described the ignition switch problem to GM dealers.

Last year, GM CEO Mary T. Barra expressed her support for components of legislation introduced by Senators Markey and Blumenthal that would ensure more transparency and earlier reporting of safety issues to prevent auto injuries and fatalities. The legislation, the Early Warning Reporting System Improvement Act, would require NHTSA make the information it receives from auto manufacturers publicly available in a searchable, user-friendly format so that consumers and independent safety experts can evaluate potential safety defects themselves.

Root Cause of Recalls & Remedies

June, 2015

The NY Times reports ahead of the June 2, 2015 House Hearing on Takata airbag recalls. “Those results contributed to Takata’s decision to stop manufacturing inflaters with the batwing-shaped propellant, the company said. But Takata maintains that it still has not pinned down a definitive root cause of the ruptures.

The problems with the airbags date to almost 15 years ago when drivers began lodging complaints about them with federal regulators. In November, The Times reported that Takata had ordered tests on the airbags in 2004 and found signs of defects, but did not convey the results to the regulators. Takata has disputed that report.

The first recall for the airbag issue came in November 2008 when Honda recalled 4,205 vehicles, a small number, with the Takata products. The company recalled an additional 510,000 cars six months later after a teenager was killed by an exploding airbag.

Those two recalls prompted regulators at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to open an investigation in 2009 into the two companies’ handling of the defect. Six months later, it closed the investigation without requiring that Takata turn over all of the documents that had been requested.

In the document officially closing the inquiry, the agency wrote that there was “insufficient information to suggest that Honda failed to make timely defect decisions on information it was provided….

“What concerns me today are multiyear safety investigations where we can identify a problem but a solution is nowhere in sight; where the preferred approaches are Band-Aids instead of an effective cure,” said Representative Fred Upton, the Republican from Michigan who is chairman of the committee.”  See 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/02/business/takata-says-it-will-no-longer-make-side-inflater-linked-to-airbag-defect.html?ref=business&_r=0

As for the root cause of failures to protect the public in corporations and government regulatory agencies, consider money. 

“For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”  1 Timothy 6:10

Whether it be relentless cost cutting demands by OEMs or the corruption of government regulatory policy the root cause is money.

Whether it be airbags exploding dangerously, or airbags not deploying when needed examination will find money at the root of corporate and governmental failures to protect.  See report of June 2014 at

https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/blog-nhtsaexec2004.php

We can and must do better than this at protecting people before profits.

Child Safety Still A Problem – How Did NHTSA Fail To Protect American Children?

June, 2015

The NY Times reports on good work by the IIHS:

“Installing a child safety seat in a vehicle has been a confusing, sometimes difficult task for many parents. A new study released on Thursday has backed up many parents’ complaints, finding that only a handful of vehicles deserved the highest rating for ease of installation.

The study, conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, rated 102 vehicles for how easily a child safety seat could be installed. It focused on the vehicles’ so-called Latch system, which consists of three anchors that the seat is secured to.

Only three models received the highest rating of Good: the BMW 5 Series, Mercedes-Benz GL-Class and the Volkswagen Passat.”  See

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/19/business/few-vehicles-equipped-for-easy-child-safety-seat-installation-study-finds.html?emc=edit_tnt_20150618&nlid=37926955&tntemail0=y

NHTSA data on deaths of children in crashes restrained and unrestrained in fatal crashes (413 under age 8 in 2013) is at

http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812154.pdf

For more than a century children have been dying in crashes restrained and unrestrained.

In 1980 NHTSA published a report on Automobile Occupant Crash Protection. (Disclosure: I edited this report that was cited by the Supreme Court in overturning the Reagan Administration’s rescission of the airbag rule.)  That report listed models of cars that had problems with child restraints.  See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/1980fullreport.pdf

When will NHTSA require all auto companies to design vehicles to better protect children?  Will it happen while the NHTSA Office of Crashworthiness Research and its Human Injury Research Program are both headed by former GM officials?

Lou

Congress on Auto Safety & Money

June, 2015

Lou

Will Congress Fix Auto Safety?

June, 2015

Bipartisan Legislation Introduced

Senate Commerce Committee’s New Report on Takata

June, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

“WASHINGTON, D.C. – Employee emails sounded dire warnings about safety and quality lapses years before Takata Corp. would fully acknowledge the threat posed by its defective airbags. 

The emails in question are among some 13,000 documents gathered by the Senate Commerce Committee as part of its ongoing investigation into defective airbags that so far have been linked to at least eight deaths and more than 100 injuries worldwide. 

They are cited by minority staff of the commerce panel who have produced a new report in the probe, as the full panel prepares to hear from Takata and federal regulators at a hearing tomorrow morning””

““The more evidence we see, the more it paints a troubling picture of a manufacturer that lacked concern,” said U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), the top Democrat on the Commerce Committee.

Among the minority report’s other key findings: 

• ·     An unknown number of replacement parts might be defective as well.

• ·     Despite being in the midst of what would become the largest auto recall in U.S. history, an April 2011 email from a Takata senior vice president noted that “Global safety audits had stopped for financial reasons for last 2 years.” 

• ·     Federal regulators failed to “promptly investigate” early reports of the defective airbags.

“Had Takata maintained a more robust culture of safety, it is likely that many of these defects could have been discovered much sooner,” the report concluded.  “Similarly, had NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) promptly undertaken more aggressive steps to investigate the Takata airbag ruptures, it is possible that this defect could have been addressed years earlier.””  Source:

http://www.commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=1e0f311a-2ebb-4069-8332-f6b6f1e8a9cc