Dec 3, 2014
LA Times
[…] Between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. Tuesday there were 172 injury collisions on Los Angeles County’s highways compared to 84 injury crashes in the same period on Nov. 25, said Officer Francisco Villalobos. […]
The DC – ist
[…] In 2013, D.C. saw 12 pedestrian and two cyclist fatalities, according to the Metropolitan Police Department. […]
[…] According to the 2,515 accident reports on crashes between cyclists and motorists resulting in the injury or death of a bicyclist in San Diego County from 2011 to September 2014, it was the cyclist who was most often found at fault, when fault was determined. […] “Investigators, however, have never provided a reasonable explanation how (the cyclist), struck from behind, shares responsibility for his own death,” the BikeSD website said. […]
TRW Safety
October 7, 2013
[…] What makes the small overlap crash so challenging is it bypasses the primary crumple zone structure, concentrating force in the front suspension, at the firewall, and at the base of the A-pillar – areas not traditionally designed to absorb and dissipate crash forces.” […]
06/19/02
Christopher Jensen
Plain Dealer Auto Editor
Consumer groups are demanding that the government prohibit regional automotive safety recalls, a practice they say puts motorists’ lives at risk while saving automakers money.
In a regional recall, the automaker limits the repairs to cars in states where the problem is most likely to occur, rather than carrying out the safety program nationwide.
[…] The NHTSA’s own Web site includes complaints from consumers that suggest that the regional recall system is not working. […]
NHTSA
November 18, 2014
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) today announced it is calling for a national recall of vehicles with certain driver’s side frontal air bags made by Takata. This decision is based on the agency’s evaluation of a recent driver’s side air bag failure in a vehicle outside the current regional recall area and its relationship to five previous driver’s side air bag ruptures, all of which are covered by existing regional recalls.
“By demanding this national recall, NHTSA has demonstrated once again that it will follow data and evidence to protect the lives of Americans on the road and to hold manufacturers accountable,” said Secretary Anthony Foxx.
NHTSA contacted Takata and the vehicle manufacturers this week to call for the national recall of these vehicles after evaluating a recent incident that involved a failure in a driver’s side air bag inflator outside an area of high absolute humidity. Based on this new information, unless Takata and the manufacturers quickly agree to this recall, NHTSA will use the full extent of its statutory powers to ensure vehicles that use the same or similar air bag inflator are recalled.
As part of these efforts and its ongoing investigation into both the defect and the scope of the recalls, the agency also issued a General Order to Takata and all ten of the vehicle manufacturers that use Takata air bag inflators – BMW, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, and Toyota – requiring each manufacturer to file, under oath, a detailed report and produce all related documents about completed, ongoing or planned testing of Takata inflators outside the current regional recall areas. The agency is demanding this information to compel Takata and the affected industry to be frank with not only NHTSA, but the American public, as to what testing and additional steps they have done and plan to do to control and mitigate the risk associated with Takata’s defective inflators.
Additionally, NHTSA issued a Special Order to Takata, the second the agency has issued to the manufacturer regarding this defect, compelling it to provide, under oath, documents and detailed information on the propellant used in Takata’s inflators. In recent days, Takata has publicly conceded that it changed the chemical mix of its air bag inflator propellant in newly designed inflators. As part of its ongoing investigation, the agency will analyze the information received to determine if the chemical composition of Takata’s propellant mix may be a cause and/or contributing factor in the air bag inflator ruptures.
“We now know that millions of vehicles must be recalled to address defective Takata air bags and our aggressive investigation is far from over,” said NHTSA Deputy Administrator David Friedman. “We’re pushing Takata and all affected manufacturers to issue the recall and to ensure the recalls capture the full scope of the problems.”
In addition to the General Order and Special Order, NHTSA is issuing a Recall Acknowledgement Letter, a routine response to all Safety Recall Reports filed with the agency. The letter summarizes the details of the most recent report submitted by Takata regarding its defective passenger side air bag inflators and identifies the information gaps the agency is insisting Takata clarify to ensure it provides the full information required by law.
While NHTSA is not aware of either field incidents or test data suggesting that the problem affecting passenger-side air bags in the areas of persistently high humidity extends beyond those areas, the agency has been pushing the industry to perform testing to ensure that current recalls effectively cover vehicles with air bags that could be potentially affected by this defect.
The information the agency receives from Takata and the auto manufacturers will provide further information and details needed to continue its investigation into this complex issue. Responses to the General Order and Special Order are due to NHTSA by December 5.
Bloomberg News
November 17, 2014
[…] The quick, secret deals, a cornerstone of product liability litigation across industries, help explain why years after the first recalls so much remains unknown about defects linked to four U.S. deaths. The few cases filed have generally been resolved before victims’ lawyers acquired evidence. […]
New York Times
By BILL VLASIC
NOV. 13, 2014
[…] Asked about the dozens of people who were killed and injured because of a faulty ignition switch that he was responsible for, Mr. DeGiorgio, 61, broke down and cried. […] Over the next several months, he expressed his frustration with the weak switch in several emails to G.M. colleagues and Delphi engineers, even calling it the “switch from hell.” […]
By Reuters 11/13/14
[…] Separately, Takata disputed a recent New York Times report that it had failed to tell federal regulators that it had found signs of air bag defects in secret tests in 2004 in Michigan.
[…] All five deaths have been in Honda cars. The Japanese carmaker, Takata’s biggest customer, widened its recall for the defective air bags by another 170,000 vehicles globally, taking the total to nearly 10 million. […]
Oct 30, 2014
More than half the nation, 27 states, have now announced they are suspending further installation of a controversial guardrail system used on roads around the country following what critics said was a cover-up of a dangerous change in the guardrail’s design made nearly a decade ago. […] The ET-Plus System was the subject of an ABC News “20/20” investigation in September that looked into allegations from crash victims that the modified guardrail can malfunction when struck from the front by their vehicles’. […]
