Category: Blog

Treasury’s Halloween Trick on GM Crash Victims


Treasury’s Halloween Trick on GM Crash Victims

November, 2014

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

How high up does the corporate captivity of the Federal Government go?

“The U.S. Treasury says confidential information it got in the bailout of General Motors Co. (GM)should stay secret, otherwise at-risk companies needing government help in the future might not be willing to share data.

The Center for Auto Safety, now researching GM’s ignition-switch defects, sued in 2011 for information the government obtained before investing $49.5 billion in the automaker. It got more than 50,000 documents and wants additional records on the U.S. role in a judge’s ban on lawsuits over older GM cars. The Treasury asked a judge to throw out the lawsuit…. 

Still, highlighting the risks, the Treasury’s bailout fund lost $11.2 billion on its investment by December when it sold its remaining shares in the new GM, according to a May government report.

Clarence Ditlow, president of the Washington-based auto safety center, said GM came to the U.S. “hat in hand” and was forced as a condition of getting money to produce the information that he is now seeking. Others will do the same, he said yesterday in an e-mail.

“Disclosure of information will not deter corporations begging for billions in taxpayer dollars from seeking bailout funds in the future,” he said.”

Seehttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-30/treasury-seeks-gm-suit-dismissal-as-danger-to-future.html#disqus_thread

Treasury to America:  No you cannot see what the Federal government knew and when it knew it when we gave billions of your dollars to GM.  

The bailout was necessary, but making the details public is also necessary.

Lou

 

GM Crash Victims Payout Plan as of Halloween 2014


GM Crash Victims Payout Plan as of Halloween 2014

November, 2014

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Only 2 months left for GM crash victims to make claims to GM Ignition Compensation Program.   Their “deadline” (their word, not mine) is December 31, 2014.  See http://www.gmignitioncompensation.com/index

As of Halloween, GM Administrator Feinberg’s website shows Latest Overall Program Statistics as of October 24, 2014 to be at http://www.gmignitioncompensation.com/docs/program_Statistics.pdf

Claims received “to date” *  192 for deaths, but so far only 30 “determined eligible”

*  102 for “Category One” injuries such as Quadriplegia, but so far only 4 “determined eligible” 
*  1286 for “Category Two” injuries, but so far only 27 “determined eligible”
Note:  “Remaining claims are either under review, deficient awaiting further documentation or deemed ineligible.”  No statistical breakout of these categories is  currently publicly available.  See http://www.gmignitioncompensation.com/docs/program_Statistics.pdf

 

DOT Secretary “Heck of a job” Anthony Foxx – “Incredible Track Record”


DOT Secretary “Heck of a job” Anthony Foxx – “Incredible Track Record”

November, 2014

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

The Detroit News reports: 

“Last week, a senior administration official told reporters NHTSA’s handling of the recall was “suboptimal.”

Foxx told The Detroit News on Friday that NHTSA’s handling of the recall “wasn’t flawless in the sense” that there were mistakes in press releases — some wrong cars and the wrong number of vehicles were listed in releases on successive days last week. And the website at which car owners could check to see if the vehicles were recalled wasn’t working for much of the week.

“That’s what was suboptimal,” Foxx said. He praised NHTSA’s “incredible track record” over the last decade.”  See 

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/foreign/2014/10/31/nissan-air-bag-recall/18234493/

So what was this praiseworthy “incredible track record” of NHTSA over the past decade of Bush/Obama?

Way back in August 2014, (about 9,000 crash deaths ago) NHTSA reported that over the past decade nearly 350,000 Americans died of crash injuries.  See attached NHTSA report also available at http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812055.pdf

In fairness to Secretary Foxx, he may not have added the annual figures, or added an estimate for 2014, or recognized the effects of the Great Recession 2006 – 2010 in the decline in crash deaths.  But then, he has little knowledge of auto safety.  Neither does the current deservedly much criticized NHTSA Deputy Administrator David Friedman know much about auto safety.   See Secretary Foxx’s bio at
Consider that the 350,000 crash deaths is just part of the tragic statistical picture.  One has to add about 1.4 million serious crash injuries.  And using the NHTSA figures on 2010 annual societal costs of $871 Billion, one can estimate this “incredible track record” at nearly $8 Trillion.  See NHTSA Report at http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812013.pdf
The 350,000 crash deaths over the past decade amounts to more than 3 times the 101,442 deaths in the Korean, Viet Nam, Iraq, and Afghanistan wars combined.  
Incredible track record, indeed!  Just what Americans voted for, but corporations delivered.
The revolving door will turn again and these “public” officials will go for their rewards for this “incredible track record”.
Lou

 

Justice and Safety for Crash Victims


Justice and Safety for Crash Victims

November, 2014

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Justice for Crash Victims

It is a rare day when crash victims receive justice.  Justice for crash victims is too often, too little, too late, for too many people.
The NY Times has just reported on a rare Justice “Success Story” for crash victims:

“Candice Anderson received the bittersweet news Monday in a Texas courtroom, fighting back tears, and her arm around the mother of the boyfriend she had felt responsible for killing in a car crash 10 years ago.

The judge cleared Ms. Anderson in the death of the boyfriend, Gene Mikale Erickson, even though she had pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide in the case years ago.

Ms. Anderson, 21 at the time of the crash, was driving her car when she inexplicably lost control and crashed into a tree. Mr. Erickson, her passenger, died at the scene, and Ms. Anderson has been racked with guilt ever since.

In getting her record cleared, Ms. Anderson benefited from an extraordinary — and long delayed — admission by General Motors, which on Monday for the first time publicly linked Mr. Erickson’s death to an ignition switch defect in millions of its small cars….”  

“Ms. Anderson’s Saturn Ion was among the cars equipped by G.M. with the defective switch, which can cause a loss of power, disabling power brakes, power steering and airbags. At least 35 deaths have been linked to the defect, which went unreported by G.M. for more than a decade.

In May 2007, five months before Ms. Anderson entered her guilty plea, G.M. had conducted an internal review of the crash and quietly ruled its car was to blame, but never let Ms. Anderson or local law enforcement officials know.

After the crash on Nov. 15, 2004, Ms. Anderson’s parents liquidated their 401(k) to retain a lawyer to defend her. While a deal with prosecutors spared her jail time, she was on probation for five years and paid more than $10,000 in fines and restitution.”  See 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/25/business/woman-cleared-in-death-caused-by-gms-faulty-ignition-switch.html?emc=edit_tnt_20141124&nlid=37926955&tntemail0=y

This article illustrates the importance of media attention to the plight of crash victims. Thanks to trial lawyers, engineers, consumer advocates, congressional pressure, government agencies and officials, and citizens doing their parts, some justice can be achieved for some crash victims.
Safety for Crash Victims
But as we are all crash victims in so many ways, we need to achieve both justice and safety to prevent injuries to all future crash victims.  Both “success” stories and “suffering” stories of crash victims help move us as a society to achieve greater safety.  With about 100 crash deaths per day, plus 400 serious crash injuries per day, and costs of about $2 Billion per day occurring in the U.S.A. today — we have a great need for crash victim justice and safety.  See
NHTSA Report on Economic and Societal Costs at http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812013.pdf
Lou

 

Sen. Markey Statement on Honda Plan for Nationwide Recall & NHTSA’s Regional Recall Failure


Sen. Markey Statement on Honda Plan for Nationwide Recall & NHTSA’s Regional Recall Failure

November, 2014

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Press Release from Senator Markey:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Contact: Eben Burnham-Snyder (Markey) 202-224-2742

 

Markey Statement on Honda’s Nationwide Takata Airbag Replacement Program

 

NHTSA should require all companies to do the same, notify all customers

 

WASHINGTON (November 17, 2014) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), who has called for a nationwide recall of the deadly, defective Takata airbags, today released the following statement regarding Honda’s unpublicized plan to allow customers nationwide to replace their airbags, not just the customers in the regional recall zones. Senator Markey is a member of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, and this news was reported first by AP.

 

“Our highway safety agency, not Honda, should have been the first to call for this nationwide replacement of deadly airbags. NHTSA should require a nationwide recall, and should require Honda and other affected car companies to immediately announce mandatory nationwide recalls to protect American drivers.

 

“Three of the four known deaths that have occurred from these deadly airbags happened outside of the regional recall boundaries, which prove that this haphazard geographic safety regime doesn’t work. It’s time to send this regional recall policy to the junkyard, and protect all drivers on America’s roads.”