October, 2014
Finally! A review after nearly 200,000 crash deaths and about 800,000 serious crash injuries under the Obama Administration…. Source: http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812055.pdf
October, 2014
BMW announces at the Paris Auto Show a potentially life saving system that was developed by NHTSA in prototype form in 1997. Landmark papers on URGENCY Algorithm work that I had a role in are available at: https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/urgency.php“BMW Assist eCall and TeleService. The new BMW X6 is equipped with the BMW Assist eCall system and TeleService including a 10 year subscription. The system relays important information to the BMW Call Center in the event of a crash, such as vehicle position (accurate to within feet), chassis number, vehicle model, vehicle color and data from the onboard sensors. The system also detects how many people are travelling in the vehicle, which airbags were activated and the intensity of the impact. Thanks to the company’s ground-breaking Urgency Algorithm, the system also uses data from the vehicle’s crash sensors to assess and transmit the likelihood of severe injury. This makes it easier to supply first responders with critical information in a timely fashion.” See http://www.autoblog.com/2014/10/02/2015-bmw-x6-keeps-it-weird/
An excellent article describes tragedies. See “Mom Takes on Truckers After Highway Wreck Kills Daughters” at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-01/mom-takes-on-truckers-after-highway-wreck-kills-daughters.html
Lou
October, 2014
Another good article from the NY Times covering the GM saga. “Lawyers in sweeping class-action litigation against General Motors have significantly broadened their case against the embattled automaker, claiming that the company disregarded and concealed safety issues far beyond the defective ignition switch that is now linked to 27 deaths.”
Notes to NY Times: Why not add a Comment section? And help readers by giving them a link to the Master Complaint.
October, 2014
More NY Times good reporting – including documents – on airbag defects.
“Takata was alerted to the problem as early as 2004, when the airbag in a 2002 Honda Accord ruptured in Alabama, but neither Takata nor Honda told regulators, a New York Times investigationhas shown. The first recall for the airbags was issued by Honda in 2008, for about 4,200 vehicles.
“We are compelling Takata to produce documents and answer questions under oath relevant to our ongoing investigation into defective airbags they have produced,” David J. Friedman, the N.H.T.S.A.’s deputy administrator, said in a statement.” See
So will NHTSA now compel automakers “to produce documents and answer questions under oath”? Will NHTSA make the documents and answers public? Will NHTSA hold public hearings?
When will we see a grand jury investigation that puts NHTSA and auto company officials officials under oath for more than a decade of defective policies?
Just one example of NHTSA malfeasance. See attached FY 2013 NHTSA Budget Request authorized by former Administrator Strickland seeking a decrease in Defects Investigation budget. See pp 54, 59 – 61. Note: Mr. Strickland is now a lobbyist working for a company that represents Chrysler.
Other examples of “responsible” officials who have gone through the NHTSA and other governmental Revolving doors into and out of NHTSA are at https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/CFCV-MonthlyReport-March2014.pdf
The American people can, and must, get to the bottom of this death and disability producing mess to protect themselves.
Lou
September, 2014
Progress continues along the bloody road of crash deaths and serious injuries.
Growing Public Information The NY Times publishes in one place links to its many landmark articles on the scandal so far. Seehttp://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/09/19/business/crisis-in-gm-auto-safety.html?mabReward=RI%3A5&action=click&contentCollection=Business%20Day®ion=Footer&module=Recommendation&src=recg&pgtype=article
“A federal judge in Manhattan on Friday ordered discovery to begin for some cases filed against General Motors Co (GM.N) in connection with its recall of millions of cars for a faulty ignition switch.
U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman in the Southern District of New York said plaintiffs could begin requesting documents from the company related to accidents, injuries and lost vehicle value linked to the switch that allegedly occurred after GM emerged from bankruptcy in 2009.”
September, 2014
“Any life lost is one too many; anything that we can do to improve in a situation like this, we’ve got to do,” David Friedman, interim head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), tells TIME in his first interview since the hearing.”….“The agency was granted just over $10 million to investigate defects in 2014, a paltry sum considering the 250 million vehicles on the road in the United States. Overall, the agency devotes about $130 million annually to vehicle safety research—a total that outrages auto-safety advocate Ralph Nader. “It’s about the cost of three months of guarding the US embassy in Baghdad,” Nader tells TIME.”….
“Nader, along with others, says he is skeptical, but ultimately, external pressures may make the question of whether NHTSA officials want to change irrelevant.
“I think the agency will change,” says Joan Claybrook, who ran the agency during Jimmy Carter’s presidency. “If it doesn’t they’re in trouble.””
Nader is right to be skeptical and Claybrook is right they will be in trouble if the agency does not change for the better.
The latest NHTSA Org Chart (copy attached) still shows ex GM officials in positions of power and influence.
And all those people who have long been on the chess board of power and influence over the past decade have only changed positions – not their stripes – as they moved through revolving doors. See some of the major chess board positions and people involved in the failures to protect American lives over the past decade identified in attached March Monthly Report.
Remember there are still millions of unfixed defective vehicles on America’s roads and streets endangering us all.
Lou
