Blog Archives - Page 79 of 115 - Care For Crash Victims

History of Auto Safety: Progress & Pressing Needs

May, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Keith Crain, Editor in Chief of Automotive News, notes 50 years of auto safety progress since publication of “Unsafe At Any Speed” by Ralph Nader.

“This industry can take pride in its accomplishments over the years. Despite that, it still needs outsiders to push for higher safety standards and greater compliance with existing rules.

Until there are no auto-related deaths or injuries, one could say that the work is not done.” See

http://www.autonews.com/article/20150427/OEM11/304279992/50-years-since-unsafe-at-any-speed

Michael R. Lemov, author of Car Safety Wars, in a Baltimore Sun Op-Ed, offers “a page of history about suffering and death on America’s highways and one big reason why it is still happening today.” Seehttp://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-car-safety-20150430-story.html

Auto safety history continues to be of life or death or disability importance to all Americans. On an average day Americans suffer nearly 100 crash deaths, 400 serious crash injuries, and estimated losses of $2 Billion.

Automotive News reports that nearly 50% of all vehicles on the roads are not covered by existing safety regulations. Seehttp://www.autonews.com/article/20150430/OEM11/150439993/almost-half-of-u-s-vehicles-arent-covered-under-existing-safety

We can, and must, do better protecting Americans from crash injuries.

Let’s push Presidential candidates to set a Vision Zero goal of zero deaths and serious crash injuries in a decade. Seehttps://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/MonthlyReportforFebruary2015.pdf

Lou

What You Can Do When Your Car is Recalled

May, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Good advice from a fellow retired NHTSA Official is in a Huffington Post article:“Ask for a loaner vehicle. You may get one — and it might just save your life.…

Allan Kam, a former senior enforcement attorney at NHTSA, told The Huffington Post that the planned hearing speaks to the severity of the problem. Kam, who served at NHTSA from 1975 to 2000, said that in the past, recalls were completed much more rapidly.

“It typically did not take months,” Kam said. Recalls that long were “the exception, rather than the rule.” See

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/21/auto-recall-takata-airbags_n_7379654.html?1432255418

New Book “Car Safety Wars” by Michael R. Lemov

Monthly Report: New Book “Car Safety Wars” by Michael R. Lemov

April, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

My monthly Report for April 2015 attached is a review of a new book to advance auto safety “Car Safety Wars” by Michael R. Lemov

“Car Safety Wars” is a timely, timeless, treasure for all crash victims – past, present, and future. We are all crash victims as tax payers, consumers, and endangered citizens needing to protect our safety and happiness.

Get it at http://www.amazon.com/Car-Safety-Wars-Technology-Politics/dp/161147745X

Lou

Ralph Nader on GM Ignition Switch Scandal and Judge Gerber’s Decision

April, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Nader writes:

“U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Gerber has done a great disservice to justice by blocking victims and their families from having their rightful day in court to challenge GM’s corporate malfeasance.

This disturbing outcome could have been prevented had the Obama administration defended the rights of those injured by GM’s faulty vehicles. The federal government failed to responsibly exercise its majority stock ownership rights by establishing successorship liability for “New GM”.”

See: https://blog.nader.org/2015/04/16/the-decision-in-the-general-motors-bankruptcy-case/

We the American people need to ask the following questions:

1. Why did Judge Robert Gerber rule against us all as we are all crash victims?

2. Why did the Obama administration not defend the rights of crash victims?

3. Why do we the American people let these acts go on and on?

Lou

NHTSA May Reopen Jeep Fire Investigation

April, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Which Matters More? Lives or money?

An excellent article on Jeep Recall shines light on former DOT & NHTSA officials and their role in the continuing endangerment of Americans – and their subsequent financial rewards.

“The new head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) says the agency may reopen an investigation into the gas tank fires in older Jeep Cherokees that safety advocates say have taken at least 270 lives.

NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind also said the agency is not happy with the plodding pace of the effort to retrofit millions of Jeeps with non-functioning trailer hitches — the scheme cooked up at a secret meeting between Rosekind’s predecessor and Sergio Marchionne, the CEO of often-renamed Chrysler, now known as FCA US LLC in the United States.

“We’re not satisfied with the current situation so we are looking for every avenue that would be appropriate for us to take action,” Rosekind said in a meeting with reporters at the New York International Auto Show, the Detroit News reported. “Given all of the stuff that’s going on, we want to figure out what else we can be doing.”

Rosekind confirmed he is considering reopening the investigation and said: “Everything is on the table. … I have organized a group who is actually looking at any other actions that are available for us given the situation.”

“A federal jury in Georgia last week found that Chrysler showed “reckless or wanton disregard for human life” in the death of Remington Walden, 4, who died when the 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee driven by his aunt was rear-ended in a 2012 accident. The jury awarded the family $150 million and said Chrysler was 99% responsible for the accident.”

New NHTSA Administrator Dr. Mark Rosekind is holding a public meeting on recalls. Seehttps://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2015/04/10/2015-08257/retooling-recalls-workshop

This follows a long period of failure to protect Americans that has been well documented in the NY Times. Seehttp://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/09/19/business/crisis-in-gm-auto-safety.html

Hopefully this meeting signals a change in NHTSA for the better.

But to change the culture of NHTSA requires shifting officials around such that public servants, rather than corporate servants, occupy the responsible positions.

As CEO of NHTSA, Dr. Rosekind needs to change the culture of the agency before he can hope to change the culture in Detroit when he meets the auto CEOs in June.

Time and future lives lost will tell which matters more at NHTSA: lives or money.

Lou

Hope for Safety and Justice in Guardrail Case Involving FHWA and Trinity Industries

April, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

The NY Times reports:

“The Justice Department has begun a criminal investigation of the guardrail maker Trinity Industries and is examining the company’s relationship with the Federal Highway Administration, according to people with knowledge of the effort.

At least five potential witnesses, including one former federal highway agency official, have been interviewed in recent weeks by investigators, and at least one grand jury subpoena for documents has been issued, according to the people.

The Justice Department is seeking documents and other records related to a federal whistle-blower case that Trinity lost last October. In that trial, a jury found t he company liable for defrauding the government by failing to disclose design changes to its guardrail, called the ET-Plus.

The changes, made in 2005, are suspected of making the units more likely to jam when hit head-on, causing the metal rail to spear the vehicle. Trinity has said that its failure to disclose the changes was an oversight and that they did not affect the performance of the guardrail. The Justice Department investigation was first reported by Bloomberg News….”

“While the full scope of the criminal investigation remains unclear, federal agents have been gathering information regarding the interactions of Federal Highway Administration officials and Trinity before and after the agency was first made aware, in 2012, of the previously undisclosed changes to the ET-Plus.”

See http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/23/business/guardrail-maker-is-said-to-be-focus-of-us-case.html

This is what it may take to secure Safety and Justice: Criminal investigations of government officials.

In the Jeep fatal Walden case, NHTSA protected former NHTSA Administrator David Strickland from being deposed by plaintiff attorney Jim Butler.

See the attached denial of a request to depose Mr. Strickland and the attorney’s protest. Such obstruction of safety and justice by DOT must not be allowed to prevail over victims’ rights to information on government actions of life or death importance.

Lou

You Can Get A Reviewer’s Copy of Car Safety Wars Free

April, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

I just learned that as members you may be able to get a free Review Copy if you are with the media or an author. You need to mention your publication or web site and say you are considering a review of Car Safety Wars. You can send your request to the publisher atreviews@rowman.com.

I think it is important to get the word on safety out now. One reason is because deaths and serious injuries rise as more people drive during the Spring and Summer months.

Alternatively, you can use the discount coupon attached.

Note: I do not get any commission or remuneration – it is a good deed to get the word out on a massive safety problem that so much can be done to save lives. My Review is at https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/MonthlyReportforApril2015.pdf

Lou