First Known GM Fatality After Recall


First Known GM Fatality After Recall

September, 2014

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

NY Times reports: “Her accident, on March 18, is the first known fatality to have occurred after G.M. disclosed the defect and began recalling 2.6 million cars.”…. “During months of outcry over G.M.’s handling of the switch issue, as investigations and lawsuits mounted, the company has fought any effort to get the recalled cars off the road until they are repaired.”

See http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/26/business/after-a-gm-recall-a-fiery-crash-and-a-payout.html?hpw&rref=automobiles&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpHedThumbWell&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

And I recommend reading the public comments too.

We are left to wonder how many more tragedies will be allowed to occur before NHTSA and GM act to adopt “Park It Now” that was recommended by Sen. Blumenthal and many others.

Lou

 


Truck Anti Safety Bill Introduced in Congress by Rep. Barletta

September, 2014

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Shame!  

“A member of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee has introduced legislation (H.R. 5532) that would order the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to stop publishing individual motor carriers’ scores under the Compliance, Safety, Accountability program until the agency has improved the data, according to a plan it would submit to Congress. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Lou Barletta (R-PA), also would prevent scores under CSA and the Safety Measurement System that underlies it from being used in crash liability cases.”  See

http://fleetowner.com/regulations/house-bill-would-block-csa-scores-public NHTSA data on crash fatalities in Rep. Barletta’s district shows that each year since 2002 about 2 fatalities occur in an average week — about 100 per year.  See my crash death mapping tool for each Congressional district for fatalities over the past decade athttp://www.arcgis.com/explorer/?open=ed97b17427b74b2e87ab925d55eb1313&extent=-20659591.7409969,875765.608846319,-3093254.85263374,8576895.45964956  

If  Pennsylvania constituents only knew….

Lou

 

GM Ignition Switch Compensation Plan Statistics

GM Ignition Switch Compensation Plan Statistics

September, 2014

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

The GM Feinberg plan’s first statistics are available (attached) and show: *  125  Deceased Claims Received, but only 19 determined to be eligible to date.

*  58 Category One (Serious Injuries) Claims Received, but only 4 Claims determined to be eligible to date.
For limitations on this GM Program to minimize the problem seehttps://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/MonthlyReport-June-July-2014.pdf
Lou

 

Trust NHTSA and Corporations or Not?


Trust NHTSA and Corporations or Not?

September, 2014

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:  

Two informative articles provide perspectives people concerned with crash victims should know about.   The first, in WardsAuto, argues that if Congress increases information disclosure requirements on auto companies, corporations would not be protected from monetary losses.  Seehttp://wardsauto.com/industry-voices/public-disclosure-industry-data-could-hamper-not-help-vehicle-safety

The second, in Automotive News, describes NHTSA performance in defending its failures to protect Americans from losses of life and livelihoods for a decade.  Seehttp://www.autonews.com/article/20140922/OEM11/309229959/now-its-nhtsa-under-fire#

Information on proposed legislation is at https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/blog-schakowsky.php

 

GM Gets Raised S&P Endorsement to Investment Grade Rating


GM Gets Raised S&P Endorsement to Investment Grade Rating

September, 2014

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

The Detroit Bureau reports:

“Despite the recall of more nearly 30 million vehicles in the U.S. this year, concerns about subprime lending and a lackluster showing in the stock market, Standard & Poors has given GM a much-needed endorsement, raising the company’s credit rating to investment grade.

The announcement comes at a welcome moment for GM, which has watched its share price slide 20% since the beginning of the year, even while the S&P 500 has gained 20%. It also coincides with a generally positive cover story in Time magazine featuring CEO Mary Barra.”

See  http://www.thedetroitbureau.com/2014/09/gm-regains-investment-grade-rating-from-sp/

Without comment,

Lou

 

Attorney General Holder To Resign – Too Big To Jail


Attorney General Holder To Resign – Too Big To Jail

September, 2014

Dear Care for Crash Victims community Members:

This decision by the current Attorney General (AG) opens questions about the policies of the Obama Administration regarding failures to protect Americans from crash injuries and deaths as well as preventing crimes in the suites – both corporate and governmental.

The NY Times Editorial reviewing Mr. Holder’s record noted:

“On the financial front, he did not prosecute a single prominent banker or firm in connection with the subprime mortgage crisis that nearly destroyed the economy. These are not accomplishments to be proud of.

Of course, Mr. Holder has always served at the pleasure of the president, who has his own policy priorities and political survival to consider.”  Seehttp://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/26/opinion/eric-holders-legacy.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3As%2C{%221%22%3A%22RI%3A8%22} Last year the NY Times noted: “At the same Wednesday judiciary committee meeting where Attorney General Eric Holder hemmed and hawed before acknowledging that the president cannot authorize a drone strike on American soil, against an American terrorist suspect posing no imminent threat, he explained why the Justice Department has failed to bring criminal charges against a single Wall Street bank. Mr. Holder suggested, as a Financial Times headline put it this morning, that some banks are “too big to jail.”….

“Mr. Holder said: “I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if you do prosecute, if you do bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy.”

“It’s nice and all that Mr. Holder cares about the stability of the global financial system, but that is not Mr. Holder’s job. As attorney general he is the country’s top law enforcement officer, and in that capacity he should prosecute criminals and criminal institutions.

“As we wrote in an editorial after the no-indict decision, “when prosecutors choose not to prosecute to the full extent of the law in a case as egregious as this, the law itself is diminished. The deterrence that comes from the threat of criminal prosecution is weakened, if not lost.”” See  http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/07/banks-above-the-law/

So in the endless cases of crash deaths and serious injuries currently resulting in nearly 100 crash deaths and 400 serious crash injuries per day under the Obama Administration and no criminal prosecutions of a single corporate or government official is it not time for reform?  It is a time when the President’s decisions on who will replace AG Holder and NHTSA Deputy Administrator David Friedman will reveal who is most responsible for the nation’s failures to protect Americans from crash deaths and serious injuries.

Currently under President Obama’s expected 8 years, the nation is on track to record nearly 250,000 crash deaths – more than twice the number of Americans who died in the Afghanistan, Iraq, Viet Nam, and Korean wars combined.  Plus about 1 million serious crash injuries and $7 trillion in societal losses.

It’s time to change direction for the better — here in the U.S.A. 

Last week President Obama spoke about problems all around the world as he is leading the U.S. into another war.  At the Clinton Global Initiative President Obama said:

“No matter how dark the hour, we remember those words of Dr. King: “The time is always ripe to do right.”  

See http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/09/23/remarks-president-clinton-global-initiative

So now the time is ripe for President Obama to do right.  Here in the U.S.A.

Lou