March, 2015
C-Span video coverage including Q & A at:http://www.c-span.org/video/?324815-1/discussion-consumer-privacy-protection
Administrator’s prepared remarks attached and at:http://www.nhtsa.gov/Speeches
March, 2015
News-Press reports:
“The eight people who died in the Glades County crash are being transported to the Medical Examiner’s Office in Lee County.
Five men and three women, all from Fort Pierce, died in the single-vehicle crash, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
Eighteen people were traveling in the 2000 Dodge Ram Wagon B3500 Maxi from a “church convention,” Spokesman Lt. Gregory Bueno said. The standard seat capacity for the vehicle is 15.” See
March, 2015
Law firm Press Release states:“On January 18, 2015, Carlos Solis, IV was driving a 2002 Honda Accord in Spring, Texas when he was involved in a minor wreck with another car. The driver side airbag engaged and inflated in the collision. A large piece of metal from the airbag inflator exploded through the airbag. The shrapnel entered Solis’s neck, severed his carotid artery and jugular vein, fractured his windpipe, and lodged in his shoulder and cervical spine. The lawsuit details these findings from the autopsy by the Harris County Medical Examiner, who retrieved the metal disc from the body and described it as “foreign object (air bag inflator component).” The metal went so deep no one responding at the scene could see or feel it. Scott Solis, the brother of Carlos, came and attempted to apply pressure to the wound and comfort his brother as he bled and eventually died….” “Solis’s car was bought used in 2014 at a Houston area car dealer. While the car had been recalled in late 2011, it had never been repaired. Solis never received any notice of any need for repairs.” See http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lawsuit-against-honda-and-takata-alleges-defective-airbag-caused-drivers-gruesome-death-300046263.html
Legislators Press Release:
Contact: Giselle Barry (Markey) 202-224-2742
Josh Zembik (Blumenthal) 202-224-6452
Markey & Blumenthal Introduce Legislation to Ensure Safety Recalls Are More Quickly Completed
Legislation would require state DMVs inform vehicle owners of recalls to ensure timely repairs
Washington (March 2, 2015) – It was a year of record motor vehicle safety recalls in 2014, with approximately 64 million vehicle recalls and service campaigns due to potentially deadly safety defects, including the GM ignition switch and Takata exploding airbag defects. In response to this deadly wave of accidents and recalls, Senators Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) today introduced legislation that would require state Departments of Motor Vehicles and state motor vehicle registration agencies to notify vehicle owners of open safety recalls to help ensure that owners get the safety recalls remedied. The Repairing Every Car to Avoid Lost Lives (RECALL) Act is similar to requirements to obtain emissions testing or insurance prior to registration or registration renewal by many states, and it is an effective way to ensure that vehicle owners are aware of and comply with their safety recalls. Studies estimate that only 65 percent of recalled vehicles get fixed within the first 18 months of being recalled, and one in every seven vehicles on American roadways – upwards of 34 million cars and trucks – has an unfixed recall.
“This legislation represents the three R’s of automotive safety: recall, repair, register,” said Senator Markey, a member of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.“We need to inform all vehicle owners of open safety recalls and ensure repairs get made quickly so our roads are kept safe. The RECALL Act will help prevent any more avoidable deaths from unrepaired recalls. I thank Senator Blumenthal for his partnership on this legislation and look forward to continuing to work with Chairman Thune and our colleagues to enact strong auto safety legislation to protect American families.”
“Unrepaired safety defects endanger everyone on America’s roadways. Important recall notices can get bogged down with legalese, and busy consumers can miss a lifesaving update,” said Senator Blumenthal. “This legislation provides a common-sense avenue to ensure every driver is reminded and encouraged to make the necessary repairs and keep unsafe cars off the roads.”
A copy of the RECALL Act can be found HERE.
“Senators Markey and Blumenthal’s initiative will help us all achieve the critical goal of completing 100 percent of every automotive recall campaign in America. We believe the process of vehicle registration is a logical point to require an additional check for any open safety recalls in order to ensure that repairs are completed,” said Rick Schostek, Executive Vice President of Honda North America, Inc. “When it comes to ensuring that safety-related recalls are completed, automakers, government and concerned citizens need to work together to protect drivers, passengers and others on the road. Everyone has an important stake in making sure these vehicles are repaired.”
“Based on my personal experience, I am committed to finding ways to make certain that every vehicle owner is aware of and addresses open recalls,” said Stephanie Erdman, a Florida resident who was seriously injured in 2002 by a Takata airbag inflator. “This proposal significantly increases the likelihood this will occur.”
March, 2015
Wall St. Journal reports:“Chrysler conducted a “thorough review” of older Jeeps and the design of their fuel tanks is “not a safety defect,” the chief executive of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV testified in a wrongful-death lawsuit over a 4-year-old boy killed in a fiery rear-end Jeep crash in 2012.” See
If the jurors swallow this…what can ordinary citizens do?
Lou
March, 2015
Bloomberg reports on past and present trial of Fiat Chrysler tragedies and the role of NHTSA’s Revolving Door.“Jurors are poised to view grisly evidence of the June 2012 death of 4-year-old Remington Walden in the back seat of a 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee. The SUV erupted in flames after being rear-ended at an intersection as his aunt drove him to a tennis lesson.
The family’s lawyers say the boy died screaming in a fire so intense his chest fused to the Jeep’s door. They said a medical examiner determined the child, strapped to a booster seat, was probably alive for as long as a minute, with the position of his body showing he died struggling to get out….
“The limited recall also raised concerns about the closeness of the regulating agency to the carmaker, said Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Washington-based advocacy group Center for Auto Safety. The lead negotiator for NHTSA in the deal went to work for one of Fiat Chrysler’s law firms after the accord was reached.
Ditlow said he would use any verdict against the company in court to try to force NHTSA to reopen the investigation or expand the recall….”
“The big question now is what evidence will be presented at the trial,” “The executive’s testimony will figure prominently in the case, one of the first trials since the accord, Ditlow said. Claims of collusion between the government and the carmaker will be a focal point of the trial, including details of the meeting that led to the limited recall, he said.” See
And as I wrote nearly a year ago Americans are still in danger of unfixed Jeep vehicles. See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/blog-unfixedjeeps.php
And Americans are still in danger of the “unfixed” NHTSA officials still in positions of power in and out of the agency. See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/CFCV-MonthlyReport-March2014.pdf
Auto makers and NHTSA can, and must, do better.
Lou
March, 2015
Lou
March, 2015
Please see excellent article (that I had missed) at:http://www.safetyresearch.net/blog/articles/improving-recall-system-21st-century
Lou
