Category: Blog

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

 

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

June, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

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


Congress on Auto Safety & Money

June, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

The Detroit News reports:“In a notice sent to Senate offices late Tuesday, the Senate Commerce Committee said it will hold a June 23hearing titled, “Update on the Recalls of Defective Takata Air Bags and NHTSA’s Vehicle Safety Efforts.”….

The committee’s chairman, Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said in a Detroit News interview last week he is considering legislative proposals to reform NHTSA, but said he is still not convinced the auto safety agency needs more funding.

Thune said “the White House has not been very visible” on the NHTSA request for more funding.

In an interview Tuesday, Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said he hasn’t made any decisions about whether he will propose auto safety legislation. He backed an amendment to the House Transportation budget last week that would add $4 million to NHTSA’s budget.

“We want to make sure that (NHTSA) is able to deliver,” Upton said.”  See

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/2015/06/16/senate-panel-set-hold-hearing-defective-airbags/28846129/

How does $4 million compare with the DOT Policy Guidance value of a statistical life?  That value is $9.1 million.  See attached DOT policy.

How does $4 million compare with 32,675 Americans dying of crash injuries in 2014?  That value would be nearly $300 Billion in 2014.  And that includes zero dollars for an estimated 2 million Americans injured each year.  See http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812139.pdf

Hopefully, the American people will make sure that Congress delivers safety — not just a few more dollars.  Here in America, please!

Lou

 

Insights Into NHTSA’s New Activity on Recalls


Insights Into NHTSA’s New Activity on Recalls

May, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members: “The U.S. auto safety watchdog, long criticized as toothless and slow, is showing both bark and bite under its new boss – a testimony to his credentials as a safety expert and a hardening of the administration’s policy after a wave of deadly defects.”http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/24/us-autos-takata-nhtsa-insight-idUSKBN0O90F220150524

 

Law Professors on GM Recalls and Government Failures


Law Professors on GM Recalls and Government Failures

May, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Please see this excellent article – that many Americans should read – by two leading Law Professors that concludes:“GM’s success in working the system must be offset by criminal culpability, on both the corporate and individual level, for leaving consumers to drive in ticking time bombs for so many years.”

See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rena-steinzor/gm-and-its-no-good-very-bad_b_7191124.html

Lou

 

NHTSA Administrator Rosekind and Jeep Gas Tank Defect Recall


NHTSA Administrator Rosekind and Jeep Gas Tank Defect Recall

May, 2015

Dear care for Crash Victims Community Members:

On July 2, 2015 NHTSA will hold a public hearing on the Jeep Recall.

Automotive News in an informative report notes NHTSA improvement:

“Five months into his tenure, Rosekind is delivering on that pledge. In a rapid-fire series of actions last week, his agency:

• Summoned Fiat Chrysler’s U.S. arm to a July 2 public hearing to review a “pattern” of alleged problems with executing 20 recalls since 2013.

• Exacted an acknowledgment from Takata Corp. of an airbag defect in some 34 million vehicles.

• Extended its extraordinary oversight of General Motors’ safety operations for at least another year.

The whirlwind week was the clearest sign yet of Rosekind’s growing imprint on the agency, which has come under heavy criticism in recent years that it’s too timid, too slow and too cozy with the industry it polices. With the latest actions, he is invoking extraordinary powers and tools to clear up logjams on recalls, pressure automakers and get unsafe cars off the road.

Said Joan Claybrook, who ran the agency under President Jimmy Carter and has been a frequent critic of it since: “I think we have a new sheriff in town.”  

See

http://www.autonews.com/article/20150524/OEM11/305259967/nhtsas-rosekind-lays-down-the-law-and-the-industry-is-rattled

Representatives of crash victims are calling for criminal investigations of Fiat Chrysler for crash deaths.  See 

What is sadly foreseeable is that there will be more tragedies before effective remedies will be in place to prevent them.
Lou

 

Takata Airbags Changed in 2008


Takata Airbags Changed in 2008

May, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:“TOKYO (Bloomberg) — Troubled airbag supplier Takata Corp. began changing the safety devices in 2008 to reduce the risk that humidity would cause them to deploy abnormally, three people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.”

See Automotive News article and Related Stories at http://www.autonews.com/article/20150520/OEM11/150529994/1509

Also see Timeline by Reuters at http://www.autonews.com/article/20150520/OEM10/150529992/1509/timeline-of-takata-airbag-recalls