November, 2014
A long time safety advocate, Tom Kowalick, has created a petition and asks that our members consider supporting it. See https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/increase-ntsb-mission-statutory-power-and-funding-towards-enhancing-vehicle-and-highway-safety/DLKTqyWk
November, 2014
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
November, 2014
Justice 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
November, 2014
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.”
October, 2014
Mr. Joe Nocera asks important questions in the NY Times:“So the question worth asking, as Holder plans to step down, is not what his department did but why it did so little. Why was it so reluctant to pursue the financial crimes connected to the 2008 crisis?…. “Adam Levitin, a professor at Georgetown Law School, had his own list of reasons, which he emailed me. They included fear that the Obama administration would be accused of an anti-business witch hunt if it went after Wall Street; “deep personal, cultural, financial and political ties” between the administration and Wall Street; and a lack of understanding of the products and markets involved. “What it all boils down to,” Levitin concluded, “is that we didn’t have prosecutions because no one ever really wanted to prosecute.” Seearticle and comments at http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/30/opinion/joe-nocera-the-hole-in-holders-legacy.html?mabReward=RI%3A5&action=click&contentCollection=Opinion®ion=Footer&module=Recommendation&src=recg&pgtype=article
If past is prologue, this history is not good news for those who want an end to crash deaths and serious injuries and justice for crash victims. See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/blog-holderresign.php
Lou
October, 2014
Safety leadership the American people need and deserve is expressed in the Press Release below:
For Immediate Release:
October 23, 2014
Contact: Josh Zembik (Blumenthal) – 202-224-6452Josh_Zembik@blumenthal.senate.gov Eben Burnham-Snyder (Markey) – 202-224-2742
BLUMENTHAL, MARKEY CALL ON NHTSA TO ISSUE NATIONWIDE SAFETY RECALL FOR ALL CARS WITH POTENTIALLY-DEFECTIVE TAKATA AIRBAGS
Senators Also Question NHTSA Guidance For Drivers To Disable Passenger-Side Airbags
(Washington, DC) – U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.) today sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx urging the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to provide clearer guidance to drivers with potentially-defective Takata airbags, and to urge NHTSA to issue immediately a nationwide recall on all affected cars, regardless of where the vehicle is registered. Blumenthal and Markey also called on manufacturers to provide rental cars at no cost to consumers if vehicles cannot be fixed immediately due to lack of replacement parts.
The senators wrote:
“We are alarmed and astonished that NHTSA has endorsed a policy recently announced by Toyota and GM that dealers should disable passenger-side airbags and instruct against permitting passengers in the front seat if replacement parts for these airbags are unavailable. As a matter of policy, this step is extraordinarily troubling and potentially dangerous. As a matter of law, as you are aware, §30122(b) of the Motor Vehicle Safety Act (49 U.S.C.) prohibits a manufacturer from knowingly making a safety device inoperative unless the Secretary issues a specific exemption. We are unaware of an exemption from your office in the case of Takata airbags. We are also unaware of any risk assessment or other analysis conducted by NHTSA or automobile manufacturers showing that more lives would be saved than lost by disabling these air bags. Lastly, we are unaware of any information distinguishing the safety threats posed by the passenger-side airbags from the driver-side airbags. If the airbag is too dangerous for passengers, how can the very same airbag installed on the driver-side be sufficiently safe for drivers?”
Full text of the letter is below, and a pdf copy is at this link.
October 23, 2014
The Honorable Anthony Foxx
Secretary
U.S. Department of Transportation
1200 New Jersey Ave, SE
Washington, DC 20590
Dear Secretary Foxx:
We write to urge you to provide clear guidance regarding the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA’s) October 21stConsumer Advisory about potentially defective Takata airbags. Almost eight million vehicles across ten different manufacturers have been subjected to recalls or service campaigns due to airbag explosions during deployment that have caused metal shrapnel to harm or kill drivers or passengers.
We believe that NHTSA should immediately issue a nation-wide safety recall on all the affected cars, regardless of where the car is registered. In addition, your office should strongly encourage manufacturers to provide rental cars at no cost to consumers if their cars cannot be fixed immediately because of insufficient replacement parts.
We are sure you agree that the first priority for both NHTSA and the manufacturers of cars with defective Takata airbags must be to protect the safety of all drivers and their families. We have become increasingly troubled and alarmed by the confusing and conflicting advice being issued by NHTSA, and the glacial pace of the agency’s response to this public safety threat. Whether a vehicle model qualifies for a recall or is simply part of a service campaign has differed inconsistently across manufacturers, geographic regions and the type of airbag in question. We have detailed these concerns in an October 15th letter to Acting Administrator Friedman, and we look forward to his response.
We are alarmed and astonished that NHTSA has endorsed a policy recently announced by Toyota and GM that dealers should disable passenger-side airbags and instruct against permitting passengers in the front seat if replacement parts for these airbags are unavailable. As a matter of policy, this step is extraordinarily troubling and potentially dangerous. As a matter of law, as you are aware, §30122(b) of the Motor Vehicle Safety Act (49 U.S.C.) prohibits a manufacturer from knowingly making a safety device inoperative unless the Secretary issues a specific exemption. We are unaware of an exemption from your office in the case of Takata airbags. We are also unaware of any risk assessment or other analysis conducted by NHTSA or automobile manufacturers showing that more lives would be saved than lost by disabling these air bags. Lastly, we are unaware of any information distinguishing the safety threats posed by the passenger-side airbags from the driver-side airbags. If the airbag is too dangerous for passengers, how can the very same airbag installed on the driver-side be sufficiently safe for drivers? If analyses that support this policy have been conducted, or your office has issued an exemption or exemptions to Toyota or GM, please provide our offices with copies and any relevant additional materials.
We are also concerned by the absence of clear guidance from NHTSA on how and when to get vehicles fixed and what to do in the meantime. In its October 21st Consumer Advisory, NHTSA urges drivers of affected vehicles (most of which are limited to those that were purchased or registered in ‘humid’ States) to get their cars serviced immediately, but stopped short of issuing a nation-wide safety recall. The information available to us indicates no factual basis for distinguishing between states or regions of the country regarding the potential severe danger of this defect to motorists. All states experience seasons of heat and humidity. Many drivers from Connecticut, Massachusetts, and other northeastern states spend time in more humid southern states. Replacement parts are, “essential to personal safety,” for all drivers whether they live in New England or Florida, and NHTSA should immediately issue a nation-wide recall that protects all drivers. Equally important, all drivers deserve access to loaners or rental cars at no cost to them while they await repairs to their cars that make them safe enough to drive again.
Thank you for your prompt consideration of this important matter. We look forward to your responses and guidance to the issues raised above. If you have questions or concerns, please have your staff contact Joel Kelsey (Senator Blumenthal, 224-2823) or Michal Freedhoff (Senator Markey, 224-2742).
Sincerely,
___________________________ ___________________________
Richard Blumenthal Edward J. Markey
United States Senator United States Senator
October, 2014
NY Times reports:“Mary T. Barra, G.M.’s chief executive, touted the plan as a fresh start for the nation’s largest automaker, which has been struggling to stabilize operations in the wake of its recall this year of millions of defective small cars tied to at least 23 deaths.
The recall, which began in February, has already cost G.M. about $4 billion, and cast doubt on the quality and safety of its products.
The crisis has also spurred dozens of subsequent recalls of other models and forced Ms. Barra and her management team to confront deep, systemic problems within the company.”
An internal investigation revealed that some G.M. employees had known of problems for a decade with the ignition switches of compact cars that could cause the vehicles to lose power suddenly and deactivate air bags.
The revelations spurred congressional hearings and a $35 million fine by federal regulators for G.M.’s failure to report the safety defect in a timely manner. The company is still under investigation for possible criminal and civil charges by the Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission and 45 state attorneys general.
It also faces a rising tide of private litigation, even as it starts paying out compensation to victims of the faulty switch through a fund run by the lawyer Kenneth R. Feinberg.
Ms. Barra did not mention the recalls and the mounting death toll tied to the defect in her prepared remarks to investors and analysts.” See
