Jason Levine: "American consumers expect their government to prevent the false advertising of used cars and protect the environment from auto pollution. Yet, the only momentum we see in Washington is a regulatory rollback that too many in the auto industry are aiding and abetting."
The Center for Auto Safety has appointed an official with a track record in federal government consumer protection agencies as its new executive director, the advocacy group said Tuesday.
Jason Levine, who spent about six years at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission during the administration of former President Barack Obama, succeeds Clarence Ditlow, who died in November last year.
Levine has also worked for the Federal Election Commission and the Department of Health and Human Services.
In a news release, Levine said: "Despite rising auto fatalities, and new recalls coming almost daily, the current administration has shown no interest in meeting its statutory duty and moral responsibility to enforce safety laws on behalf of drivers, passengers, and pedestrians.
"American consumers expect their government to prevent the false advertising of used cars and protect the environment from auto pollution. Yet, the only momentum we see in Washington is a regulatory rollback that too many in the auto industry are aiding and abetting. The Center's role as the eyes, ears, and voice of the consumer is more important than ever."
The Center for Auto Safety was founded in 1970 by consumer rights advocate Ralph Nader and Consumers Union.
The Center for Study of Responsive Law celebrated the 50th anniversary year of Ralph Nader's book Unsafe at Any Speed at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. on May 23-26, 2016
Clarence Ditlow, auto safety watchdog and pioneer, dies at 72
By Ralph Vartabedian
Clarence Ditlow, who for more than four decades was the nation’s top auto safety advocate, died Thursday after a long battle with cancer. He was 72.
Known as a tireless watchdog, Ditlow called out federal regulators whom he accused of bowing to business executives and lobbyists seeking to weaken safety rules or sidestep costly repairs to defective vehicles.
An attorney and an engineer, he brought the ferocity of a college wrestler to his mission, but without the personality that inflamed opponents.
It was Ditlow, along with Ralph Nader and Joan Claybrook, who led the consumer movement from the early 1970s — putting pressure on an industry reluctant to introduce standard safety features in new cars, such as air bags, collapsing steering columns and stronger tires.
"There is nobody like him,” Nader said Friday. “He was a watchdog to be heeded, because he was so strategic and so focused. He had knowledge, compassion and resilience.”
Ditlow served as executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, an organization set up by Nader and Claybrook. While there, he plumbed the depths of engineering detail and legal technicalities to outmaneuver federal regulators.
He led the charge on such crucial safety issues as the Jeep Grand Cherokee fuel tank fires, the faulty General Motors ignition switches and the deadly Firestone 500 tire defect. Ditlow became a force in therecall of 7 million Toyota vehicles for their tendency to accelerate out of control after The Times published an award-winning series detailing the problem.
“He was very good at dissecting industry excuses,” Claybrook said. “I hired him when I looked at his resume and saw he was a wrestler at Lehigh” University.
But for all of his influence over a multibillion-dollar global industry, Ditlow worked as a virtual one-man shop out of a modest office in Washington, D.C. He paid himself no more than a $50,000 annual salary and could be found working late into the evenings and early in the mornings.
He made himself available to journalists through the years, despite being a shy, unassuming and intensely private person. Once, when The Times begged him for a home telephone number, Ditlow provided his then-girlfriend’s cellphone number but refused to say to whom it belonged.
He married that longtime companion, Marilyn Hermann, on Oct. 22.
Unlike many consumer advocates, Ditlow had the academic stature to take on almost any opponent that the industry or government put in front of him. He earned a degree in chemical engineering from Lehigh, graduated from Georgetown Law School and earned a master of laws from Harvard Law School. He began his career as a patent examiner before joining Nader as a staff lawyer.
Although Ditlow was a tireless opponent of the industry, he did not attract nearly the amount of hostility that was focused on Nader, who triggered the safety movement when he attacked the Chevrolet Corvair over its unsafe suspension system. Ditlow was seen as less hard-edged and caustic than some of his contemporaries.
“His surgeon loved him so much that she sat for two hours last week by his beside and sang to him,” said Nader. “I don’t know anybody who disliked him. Of course, they disliked me.”
David Cole, an auto industry expert and former engineering professor at the University of Michigan, said executives in many cases might have eventually introduced safety equipment, but Ditlow forced them to do it sooner.
“Clarence Ditlow was a force,” said Cole. “He put a focus on safety and amplified the message across the country. Everybody benefited.”
Ditlow died at George Washington University Hospital. He is survived by his wife.
Nader said Ditlow had battled cancer for the past year.
Fearless auto safety advocate Clarence Ditlow has died
Brent Snavely, Detroit Free Press
Ditlow was often just as critical of what he viewed to be the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's lax oversight of the automotive industry as he was of the automakers.
Clarence Ditlow, a legendary consumer advocate who spent a lifetime trying to make cars safer, died on Thursday. He was 72.
Ditlow was known for relentlessly pushing automakers and the government to add safety features to cars and to recall vehicles when patterns of trouble emerged. He served as the executive director of the Center for Auto Safety since 1976. The organization is a watchdog group founded by Consumers Union and Ralph Nader in 1970.
"Spanning four decades, his work forced the auto industry to make vast improvements in the safety, reliability and fuel efficiency of the vehicles on which Americans depend daily," the Center for Auto Safety said in a statement today. "In the past seven years alone, the center was the primary force behind the recalls of 7 million Toyotas for sudden acceleration, 2 million Jeeps for fuel tank fires, 11 million GM vehicles for defective ignition switches, and more than 60 million faulty Takata air bag inflators."
Ditlow battled cancer for the past year, but continued to work throughout his treatment, said Michael Brooks, the center's acting executive director. Ditlow was admitted to the hospital a few weeks ago after his condition worsened.
"He leaves us with an incredible legacy and remains our inspiration going forward," Brooks said.
Ditlow was often just as critical of what he viewed to be the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's lax oversight of the automotive industry as he was of the automakers themselves. Still, he earned the respect of many he battled against.
NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind said in a statement that millions of Americans are driving cars that are safer because of Ditlow's efforts.
“Clarence dedicated his life’s work to improving the safety of all those who drive or ride in motor vehicles," Rosekind said. "Clarence was relentless in his pursuits, and whether he was taking the fight to the auto industry, or prodding NHTSA when he felt we weren’t moving fast enough, no one could ever doubt his heartfelt motivation."
Ditlow and other representatives of the Center for Auto Safety testified more than 50 times before congressional committees about auto safety, warranties and service bulletins, air pollution, consumer protection and fuel economy.
"A tireless champion for consumers, his work has resulted in better government oversight of automakers, the installation of key safety features and the exposure of safety defects in millions of cars, SUVs and other trucks," Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said in a joint statement in the Congressional Record of Sept. 29, 2016.
Sad loss! You've probably never heard of Clarence Ditlow....he kept you safe in your car!
Clarence M. Ditlow III, Auto Safety Crusader, Dies at 72
Clarence M. Ditlow III, widely regarded as America’s foremost advocate for automotive safety, who championed seatbelts, airbags, electronics to avert crashes and campaigns to force the recall of millions of dangerously flawed motor vehicles, died Thursday night in Washington. He was 72.
His death, at George Washington University Hospital, was caused by cancer, said Daniel Becker, a friend and associate.
As head of the Center for Auto Safety, based in Washington, for 40 years, Mr. Ditlow exposed hundreds of automotive defects. He was instrumental in forcing manufacturers to recall the Ford Pintos with infamous exploding gas tanks, Toyotas that suddenly accelerated out of control and General Motors pickup trucks with sidesaddle gas tanks that blew up in collisions, killing more than 1,000 people.
With a budget of less than half the cost of one G.M. Super Bowl commercial, Mr. Ditlow took on auto industry giants in lawsuits that tightened standards for ignition systems, airbags and fuel efficiency; lobbied government agencies to ban driving while texting or using cellphones; and achieved “lemon laws” in all 50 states that made it easier for buyers to return defective vehicles.
“He was the nightmare of the misbehaving auto industry and the dream of safety-conscious motorists,” Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate and Mr. Ditlow’s mentor, said in an interview in October. “He was also honest, ethical and self-effacing.”
An engineer and lawyer, Mr. Ditlow collaborated with Mr. Nader on “The Lemon Book” (1980), on “The Lemon Book: Auto Rights” (1990) and on many safety articles. He also wrote about the tendency of some vehicles to roll over, to jump from Park into Reverse gear and to power off with a loss of all controls and airbags while being driven.
“When regulators sleep and auto companies place profits over safety, safety defects pile up,” Mr. Ditlow and Mr. Nader wrote in an Op-Ed article in The New York Times in 2014. “A record number of vehicles — more than 50 million — have been recalled this year, a result of congressional hearings and Justice Department prosecutions, which exposed a mass of deadly defects that the auto industry had concealed.”
Mr. Ditlow never achieved the fame of Mr. Nader, whose landmark book, “Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-in Dangers of the American Automobile” (1965), accused car manufacturers of hiding defects at the cost of untold lives. The book also prompted Congress to create what became the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to enforce safety standards and supervise recalls.
But Mr. Ditlow carried to fruition many of the initiatives that Mr. Nader began after he and Consumers Union jointly founded the Center for Auto Safety in 1970. Mr. Ditlow, who became the center’s executive director in 1976, was instrumental, for example, in long campaigns to require that all motor vehicles have seatbelts and airbags.
Over four decades, Mr. Ditlow badgered the traffic safety administration for more stringent standards, saying its leaders were often political appointees reluctant to move against the powerful auto industry.
He also became the industry’s fiercest critic, issuing scathing reports on defective vehicles and related problems ranging from child car-seat flaws to dangerously designed engine mounts. He testified at scores of congressional hearings on safety and warranty issues, consumer protection, air pollution and fuel economy.
And he successfully pushed for myriad recalls by the traffic safety administration: There were 60 million vehicle recalls in the last year, including 11 million for defective ignition switches and millions more for defective Takata airbags. In 2014, 1.4 million G.M. cars were recalled for engine and airbag shut-offs; in 2013, two million Jeeps for exploding gas tanks; in 2010, seven million Toyotas for sudden acceleration. In the 1970s, 6.7 million Chevrolets were recalled for defective engine mounts, and 1.5 million Ford Pintos — half of all those produced — for fuel-tank fires in rear-end collisions.
In addition to millions of other recalls in the ’80s and ’90s, Mr. Ditlow and his organization achieved lemon laws in all 50 states to protect consumers. Over the last 25 years, he also served on the boards of Consumers Union, the environmental group Friends of the Earth and the Canadian highway and the auto safety organization Automobile Protection Association.
He often sought data under the Freedom of Information laws and sometimes found shocking unintended revelations. In 1978, he discovered a secret internal memo that raised questions about the safety of Firestone 500 steel-belted radial tires sold in the ’70s. A dozen deaths resulted from blowouts caused by tires that overheated. He pressed the issue, and 15 million tires were recalled.
“This year, 60 million vehicles are under recall,” Mr. Becker, director of the Safe Climate Campaign, a unit of the Center for Auto Safety, said in an interview in October. “The vast majority of the defects were discovered by Clarence and pursued by him to protect the driving public. Hundreds of thousands of people are alive today because of his work.”
Clarence Mintzer Ditlow III was born on Jan. 26, 1944, one of three children of Clarence Mintzer Ditlow Jr. and the former Myrtice Lamb, and grew up in Camp Hill, Pa. His father was a service manager at a Chevrolet dealership in Harrisburg, Pa.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania in 1965. After working for five years as a patent examiner in the United States Patent Office, he received a juris doctorate from Georgetown University in 1970 and a master’s degree in law at Harvard in 1971.
Drawn by Mr. Nader’s crusading for consumers, Mr. Ditlow, in the late ’60s, joined what the press called “Nader’s Raiders,” young volunteers who investigated the Federal Trade Commission and in their reports found it to be “passive” and “ineffective.” A formal study by the American Bar Association then led to an overhaul that emphasized more aggressive consumer protections and antitrust enforcement.
Later, Mr. Ditlow joined another Nader spinoff, the Public Interest Research Group, which lobbied for consumer protections, environmental regulations and other progressive goals. He was a lawyer for the group until 1976, when, at Mr. Nader’s behest, he took over the Center for Auto Safety.
Mr. Ditlow, who lived in Washington, is survived by his wife, Marilyn J. Herman, and a sister.
He continued the fight into his last months. This year, he urged that auto executives who had concealed dangerous defects in their products be criminally prosecuted. And in a USA Today blog in August, he argued that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration was endangering lives by not issuing standards on driverless vehicles.
“In its zeal to advance driverless vehicles, N.H.T.S.A. has forgotten its mission is to ensure safety, not promote gee-whiz vehicle technology to increase sales,” he wrote. “It is an inherent conflict of interest for any agency to both promote and regulate technology. N.H.T.S.A.’s deference to industry initiatives in lieu of safety standards represents an abdication of regulatory responsibilities that is unprecedented in the history of the agency.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/12/business/clarence-ditlow-died.html?_r=1
Driver Automation to Be Scrutinized in NTSB Probe of Tesla Crash
By Alan Levin Jeff Plungis
Safety board seeking to learn about safety of automation
Agency joins NHTSA in studying fatal accident in Florida
For years, U.S. investigators have been calling for more automation on motor vehicles, such as sensors that slam on the brakes to prevent a crash.
At the same time, the National Transportation Safety Board, in its probes of transportation mishaps, has warned that such devices may also have a down side: the technology can confuse operators if it’s poorly designed or lead to complacency that breeds its own hazards.
Now, for the first time in a highway accident, those two potentially contradictory themes will be put to the test as the NTSB opens an investigation into a fatal accident involving a Tesla Motors Inc. sedan that was driving with a feature called Autopilot enabled.
“It’s very significant,” said Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety advocacy group in Washington. “The NTSB only investigates crashes with broader implications.”
Team Dispatched
The Safety Board will be sending a team of five investigators to Florida next week, agency spokesman Christopher O’Neil said Friday.
While the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is conducting its own review of the May 7 incident, the NTSB wants to take a more comprehensive look at whether the crash reveals any systemic issues with driverless car technology, O’Neil said. NHTSA is a regulatory agency and the NTSB is an independent investigative body that only has the power to make policy recommendations.
“It’s worth taking a look and seeing what we can learn from that event, so that as that automation is more widely introduced we can do it in the safest way possible,” O’Neil said.
A 40-year-old Ohio man died when his 2015 Tesla Model S struck an 18-wheeler on a highway near Williston, Florida, according to a Florida Highway Patrol statement. The Model S drove under the truck’s trailer, shearing off its top.
First Fatality
The Autopilot, a semi-autonomous feature that can guide the vehicle in certain conditions, didn’t notice the white side of the tractor trailer as it turned in front of the car against a brightly lit sky so the brake wasn’t applied, according to Tesla. The system may have confused the truck with an overhead highway sign.
The crash was the first with a known fatality in more than 130 million miles of Autopilot driving, according to the carmaker.
Ditlow said that the NTSB rarely opens investigations into highway accidents, so the announcement that it was looking at the Tesla crash is significant.
“They’re not looking at just this crash,” he said. “They’re looking at the broader aspects. Are these driverless vehicles safe? Are there enough regulations in place to ensure their safety?”
Beta System
“And one thing in this crash I’m certain they’re going to look at is using the American public as test drivers for beta systems in vehicles. That is simply unheard of in auto safety,” he said.
Tesla has installed the software for Autopilot on all 70,000 of its cars since October 2014 even though it is still a so-called beta version. Tesla said in a June 30 blog postthat vehicle owners must acknowledge that the system is new technology that is “still in a public beta phase” before it will switch it on.
“Autopilot is by far the most advanced driver-assistance system on the road, but it does not turn a Tesla into an autonomous vehicle and does not allow the driver to abdicate responsibility,” the company said. “Since the release of Autopilot, we’ve continuously educated customers on the use of the feature, reminding them that they’re responsible for remaining alert and present when using Autopilot and must be prepared to take control at all times.”
The NTSB opens highway investigations about 25 to 30 times a year, according to O’Neil. By comparison, it is required by law to investigate the more than 1,000 aviation accidents a year.
Tracy Morgan
The NTSB has for decades called on vehicle manufacturers to install more features to automatically prevent accidents. After a Wal-Mart Stores Inc. truck struck a limo van carrying comic Tracy Morgan, the NTSB examined why the truck’s automatic braking system wasn’t switched on at the time of the impact.
Accidents involving automation also have been a growing issue in aviation and other transportation modes, according to NTSB case files.
The board concluded that an autopilot feature on the Boeing Co. 777 that crashed short of the runway in San Francisco on July 6, 2013, contributed to the accident that killed three. Pilots didn’t realize that they had accidentally shut off a feature that normally ensured they would maintain a safe speed, allowing the plane to get dangerously slow.
“We have learned that pilots must understand and command automation, and not become over-reliant on it,” NTSB Chairman Christopher Hart said after the board reached its conclusions. “The pilot must always be the boss.”
A federal official says a second safety agency will investigate the fatal crash of a Tesla sedan while the vehicle's Autopilot self-driving mode was in use.
Rob Molloy heads the National Transportation Safety Board's highway investigations division. Molloy says a team of investigators will go to Florida next week to examine the wreckage of the Tesla Model S.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced last week that it is investigating the May 7 crash near Gainesville to see if the Autopilot system is defective.
The agency has said a truck made a left turn front of the car, but neither the Autopilot nor the driver applied the brakes. The driver was killed.
Molloy says NTSB's investigation will take a comprehensive look at the entire incident.
In a letter to Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Friday, Consumer Watchdog called Musk’s response to a fatal Tesla Model S Autopilot crash “woefully inadequate” and called on the company to immediately turn off the Autopilot feature on all active Tesla vehicles.
Consumer Watchdog specifically noted Musk’s “inexplicable delay” in responding to the crash, but added that Tesla’s Autopilot technology simply isn’t ready for the road. “An autopilot whose sensors cannot distinguish between the side of a white truck and a bright sky simply is not ready to be deployed on public roads,” the group said. “Tesla should immediately disable the autopilot feature on all your vehicles until it can be proven to be safe. At a minimum, Autopilot must be disabled until the complete results of NHTSA’s investigation are released.” The group pointed to Tesla’s “beta mode” option that seems to suggest it isn’t ready for public roads.
As we reported earlier this week, Tesla is working to deploy Autopilot 2.0, which may use two cameras to help a camera know more about its surroundings. That might help address some of Consumer Watchdog’s concerns, but it still wants Tesla to take the responsibility when Autopilot fails. “Tesla must assume liability for any crashes that occur when the feature is engaged,” the group said. “Both Volvo and Mercedes have said they will accept liability when their self-driving technology is responsible for a crash.”
Consumer Watchdog ended its letter accusing Tesla of “rushing self-driving technologies to the highways prematurely.”
Judge instructs jury not to consider Koua Fong Lee’s prison term or Toyota’s recalls because of sudden acceleration.
Emotions were raw in a federal courtroom Thursday as a lawsuit against Toyota over a 2006 crash that caused the deaths of three people and the imprisonment of a St. Paul man went to trial.
“My car would not stop,” testified Koua Fong Lee in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis. His voice choking, he described how his 1996 Toyota Camry slammed into another car, and a few minutes later, seeing lifeless people being pulled from the other vehicle and sheets put over them.
“I think of the white sheets and the bodies,” he said. “It makes my heart break and I am scared. … ”
The suit against Toyota claims the brakes on Lee’s 1996 car failed and the car accelerated, crashing into the rear of the victims’ Oldsmobile Ciera. Lee spent more than 2½ years in prison after being convicted of criminal vehicular homicide.
Driver error, not Toyota, was responsible for the crash, the automaker’s attorney said.
“This was a tragedy,” Bard Borkon said in his opening statement. “There is a lot of suffering that these families had to endure.”
But, he said, “the evidence is going to show that this crash is not Toyota’s fault.”
In his testimony, Lee, 37, described returning home from church to drop off family members. He pulled off eastbound Interstate 94 at Snelling Avenue and saw cars ahead of him at the top of the exit ramp.
“I took my foot off the gas and pushed the brakes and nothing happened,” he said. “Brakes not working,” he said he told his wife, Panghoua Moua. “Brakes not working.”
At the noon recess, Jassmine Adams, 21, a survivor of the crash who sustained multiple fractures,
burst into tears after her attorney, Anne Brockland, completed her opening statements. Brockland told the jury how Adams, then 12, awoke in the back seat of her father’s 1995 Oldsmobile after it was struck by Lee’s Toyota.
Adams saw her brother slumped over dead and her father smashed against the steering wheel, said Brockland. A cousin Devyn, who died later, was unresponsive.
Adams will have a lifelong imprint of that memory, said Brockland. After the jury was excused, Brockland hugged Adams and cried herself.
Lee’s attorney, Bob Hilliard, said that tests of Lee’s Camry showed that the brakes were applied. He said expert testimony will show that two plastic resin pulleys under the hood that operate the accelerator overheated and got stuck.
Arguing for Toyota, Borkon said the car Lee drove worked perfectly for 177,000 miles. He said that when Lee took the off-ramp he was “startled” by many cars in front of him and stepped on the accelerator instead of the brake.
He said the brakes worked fine when tested two days after the accident.
No prison or recalls
U.S. District Judge Ann Montgomery instructed jurors not to consider Lee’s conviction or incarceration in weighing the issues in the case, nor should they consider the 2010 decision by the Ramsey County attorney to drop charges, setting Lee free.
Jurors also are not to consider Toyota’s various recalls in connection with sudden acceleration of vehicles, Montgomery said.
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Two other people who claim they experienced “substantially similar unintended acceleration” in their Toyotas are expected to testify Friday.
The trial may last four weeks. A jury of eight men and six women was chosen on Wednesday. Two will become alternates when deliberations begin.
The outcome of the trial could have major national impact.
“It’s a big deal,” says Clarence Ditlow, executive director for the Center for Auto Safety, a consumer advocacy group, and the co-author of a book on sudden vehicle acceleration.
“It’s going right at the issue of blaming the driver,” said Ditlow. A victory for Lee and the other plaintiffs, he said, would be “a huge blow to Toyota.”
Lee was driving his pregnant wife, their 4-year-old daughter, his father and brother home from their Minneapolis church on June 10, 2006, when he exited Interstate 94. As his Camry accelerated, he sideswiped one car before hitting the Ciera.
Experts said Lee’s car was traveling between 76 and 91 miles per hour when it struck the Ciera, killing its driver, Javis Trice-Adams, 33, and his 9-year-old son, Javis Adams Jr. Trice-Adams’ niece Devyn Bolton, 7, was paralyzed and died 16 months later.
The three who died were “complete innocents,” said attorney Bill Markovits, who is representing the Trice-Adams family. “We ask you to hold Toyota fully liable,” he said.
Lee was sentenced in January 2008 to eight years in prison. After Toyota conducted a massive recall, due partly to sudden acceleration, Lee’s attorneys sought a new trial. Although Lee’s Camry was not among the models recalled, his attorneys said they would produce 11 drivers who said they had experienced sudden acceleration in older model Toyotas. Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner dismissed the charges against Lee instead, setting him free.
No damages for prison
Lee joined the families of the other victims in the lawsuit. He and his family members are seeking damages for “severe emotional distress” because of the crash.
In 2011, Judge Montgomery said Lee could not seek damages for his incarceration.
She ruled there were other factors that led to his conviction, including “many independent actions” and decisions by the Ramsey County attorney, Lee’s criminal defense attorney, the jury and the sentencing judge among others.
“All these factors combined to result in Lee’s wrongful conviction and incarceration,” she wrote, so Toyota’s role could not be ruled “a substantial factor.”
Starting in 2009, Toyota began recalling vehicles for sudden unintended acceleration, and the numbers have surpassed 8 million. It has paid out at least $34 million in federal fines and faced hundreds of claims and lawsuits. Toyota last March agreed to pay a $1.2 billion penalty in settling a criminal investigation by the Justice Department in connection with sudden acceleration.
Toyota indicated in court documents that it will show that none of the incidents to be presented by Lee and the other plaintiffs are substantially similar to the 2006 crash.
The comments are worth reading both because of their misinformation by TOYOTA defenders, many of whom may be PAID TOYOTA SHILLS and the factual information.
The railroading of Koua Fong Lee continues, with Koua now hamstrung by not being allowed to seek punitive damages (if anyone ever deserved punitive damages, it's Koua Fong Lee), not being allowed to argue that Toyota - the Coverup King of the automotive industry - covered up a defect, and the jury should most certainly be allowed to consider Toyota's never-ending recalls for sudden unintended acceleration, along with the Coverup King's guilty plea to a Federal fraud charge for concealing information about its runaway vehicles. As for the jury hearing about the horrors of Koua's incarceration, it's way past time to hold automakers - in this case an admitted crook - accountable for the aftermath when folks are victimized by defective vehicles. Compensation for Koua's imprisonment should be assigned to Toyota - not taxpayers.
I learned my lesson about Toyota when the engine disintegrated in my MR2 Spyder. Manufacturing defect, all over the Internet for years, owners generally losing about $8,500, and Toyota continues to stonewall. I've been blogging about numerous aspects of the "Toyota Way" for quite some time - search "Beware of Toyota. Their next victim may be YOU..."
@minn12, My proof was when my 2009 Tundra suddenly accelerated and while the brakes did help it hold it back some, it was too late to prevent a crash into the side of office building I was pulling up to. So, while you have some good points about the specific case here, you really have to come to terms there was a reason Toyota did recall over 4 million vehicles and settle a 1+ billion dollar lawsuit. There was evidence their vehicles had a mechanical design flaw that could cause unintended sudden acceleration.
No, he would need the ELECTRONICS examined, not the mechanics since his vehicle is an ALL electronic throttle control one. We know that during investigations into bizarre unintended acceleration crash cases that the electronics are not adequately investigated. For some reason, investigators act like it's 1965 and there a cable still attached to the accelerator pedal! Glitches happen in these ALL electronic vehicles. Unfortunately, lack of strict safety standards has allowed Toyota's flawed throttle control software to initiate uncommanded acceleration with inadequate fail-safes against it! See Bookout v Toyota case in Oklahoma where verdict was found in favor of the 2005 Camry owner in October 2013. Koua Fong Lee's case is not related to these all electronic throttle control glitches, however it is related to poor quality control and lack of adequate oversight of testing of all materials used during the design process
@minn12 Sudden unintended acceleration was prove in the case of Bookout vs Toyota October of 2013 in Oklahoma where Toyota lost and went into settlement mode.
Sudden Unintended Acceleration is real, it happened to me in 2005. I had purchased a brand new 2004 ES 330 Lexus while sitting at the red light my car took off like a rocket going through the red light. By the time I realized what was happening my car was going over 100 miles an hour and I realized that I did not have brake and I could hear the accelerator revving. All I was able to do hold on to the wheel trying to avoid hitting anyone. what eventually happen I end up going over the median and the other side of the street hitting a SUV head on totaling both cars. The dashboard fell on my legs and crushed both legs severely. The SUV driver had some minor damages. As the result of my Lexus suddenly accelerating, I have had 24 surgeries and more in future. My left leg will have to be amputated above the knee since surgery can not do any good anymore and my right ankle will have to be fused since I am in sever pain. I had been driving for over 20 years with a excellent driving record and I was not old, I did not have any medical condition, I was texting since Toyota is in the habit of blaming drivers with every possible issue can come up with. SUA IS VERY ALIVE AND IT IS HAPPENING AND IT IS NOT DRIVER'S FAULT.
Lee joined the families of the other victims in the federal lawsuit, but in 2011, Judge Montgomery said Lee could not seek damages for his incarceration. She ruled there were other factors not related to the Camry that led to his conviction, including “many independent actions and decisions by the Ramsey County attorney, Lee’s ineffective criminal defense attorney, the jury, and the sentencing judge among others.
Who is this Judge Montgomery? I'd say the Camry is the "A NUMBER 1" reason for his incarceration!
King Solomon would be unhappy with Judge Montgomery.
@jafblumpkin - "Hilliard said expert testimony will show that two plastic resin pulleys under the hood that operate the accelerator overheated and became stuck. They were situated only 10 inches from a part of the engine that reaches a temperature of 1,000 degrees.
He said that a Japanese engineer who designed the mechanism for Toyota testified in a deposition that the pulley mechanism was only tested to 248 degrees before it was put on the market and pulleys made of plastic resin were not involved in the test." Clearly, Toyota released a poorly-designed and inadequately-tested product. Seems to me the anti-Toyota sentiment was correct, and the Terminatrix had nothing to do with it.
Total speculation...the kind Toyota uses to incriminate a driver without a shred of evidence! Gee...he must have "hit the gas instead of the brakes." Interestingly, now with the ALL electronic throttle control systems in Toyota and Lexus vehicles this same "driver error" is claimed by Toyota/Lexus! That's right...even though electronic glitches have been shown within the ETCS-i, Toyota tells customers that they hit the wrong pedal...what NHTSA refers to as "pedal confusion."
Give us all a break! Electronic throttle control glitches occur because the software in the systems is not properly regulated within strict safety standards. Don't most all electronic devices have issues? That's fine as long as the FAIL-SAFES are adequate enough to prevent a catastrophe! Unfortunately in Toyota's case, it appears there the fail-safes often fail as well due to the "kitchen sink" nature of the throttle control system software. See Michael Barr and Dr. Antony Anderson's scientific findings.
Koua Fong Lee's case is different as we all know. That doesn't mean that Toyota's poor quality control and/or faulty design process didn't result in the bizarre unintended acceleration event.
Unfortunately, Toyota has historically refused to acknowledge its vehicle faults. It,never owned up to the its vehicle defects contributing to engine oil sludge either. That's another whole issue but one that remains unresolved and buried under the umbrella of "vehicle owner maintenance neglect," according to Toyota. Toyota spokespersons Mike Michels and John Hansen maintained that Toyota never saw "a single case of engine oil sludge in a properly maintained vehicle." Rest assured, these claims are false. Plenty of vehicle owners...untold numbers but thousands by count on an online petition I started in 2003 well after all the Toyota voluntary programs and class action lawsuit in the matter. Toyota claimed that only 3200 or so vehicles were affected. Not sure how they ALL managed to locate my petition as the count there was over that number when PetitionOnline.com deleted all its petitions in August of this year.
Point is, Toyota has NOT been truthful. It has admitted this and now has a deferred prosecution agreement following its criminal investigation into the sudden unintended acceleration. The claim that these cases, along with those similar to the Koua Fong Lee's case, are all the result of "driver error" is just as ludicrous as the claim that all engine oil sludge cases were the result of "owner maintenance neglect." The chances of so many cases of Toyota SUA being caused by "driver error" are statistically an IMPOSSIBILITY!
Owners sometimes take lax attitude to fixing known problems.
By Jerry Hirsch Los Angeles Times Posted Jan. 3, 2015 @ 2:00 am
LOS ANGELES – Each day, attorney Terry Harris sets out in his trusty 2002 Honda Civic, which has 150,000 miles – and has been recalled for a variety of defects considered dangerous by safety regulators.
Two are for air bags that can explode, sending shrapnel into the cabin. Another aims to fix a wiring problem that could make the headlights shut off suddenly.
“I think probability works in my favor. I don’t feel that it is urgent,” Harris said. “If I ever take the car into the dealership, I will get it fixed. But it is not at the top of my things-to-do list.”
Automakers recalled about 60 million vehicles in the U.S. in 2014, almost double the previous record set a decade ago.
But as many as 35 million of these vehicles have not been repaired, according to some estimates – even though many have defects that have been linked to multiple fatalities.
“Any vehicle that is unrepaired is a risk,” said David Friedman, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s deputy administrator.
GM has repaired a little more than 60 percent of almost 2 million older cars equipped with a defective ignition switch linked to at least 42 deaths. But that leaves about 700,000 unrepaired cars on U.S. roads. At any minute, the ignition switch can shift off, causing the driver to lose control.
It’s not the only potentially deadly problem. About 14 million vehicles from Honda, Toyota, Nissan, BMW, Ford, Chrysler and other brands were recalled in 2014 because they have defective Takata air bag inflators. In a crash, the air bags can fail to deploy correctly and will shoot metal fragments inside the car.
The problem is connected to at least five deaths, according to the Center for Auto Safety. Less than 10 percent have been fixed, said Clarence Ditlow, the center’s executive director.
Automakers have repaired only about 40 percent of all vehicles recalled in the U.S. in 2014, leaving more than 35 million vehicles with uncorrected defects, he said.
“There’s no doubt someone else is going to die,” Ditlow said.
Some vehicles don’t get fixed because people decide their car is running well, and they don’t want to take the time, Friedman said. Others never learn of the recall.
“How do you target people who don’t have English as their primary language, who are not on Facebook or Twitter?” Friedman asked. “We have to start thinking about marketing recalls in the same way automakers sell new cars.”
That’s what GM is trying to do. The automaker is dealing with one of the biggest recall scandals in automotive history – and being investigated by the Department of Justice, Congress and NHTSA for not recalling the cars with the ignition switch problem much earlier.
Judging from the $1.2 billion federal fine Toyota paid out in 2014 – after admitting that it misled regulators and consumers about recalls – GM is likely to pay a similarly high penalty. Already, it has set up a compensation fund expected to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to those injured in crashes or to survivors of those killed.
“We have used every possible communications channel to try to motivate people to bring their vehicles in,” said Ryndee Carney, a GM spokeswoman.
First there were traditional methods: direct mail, telephone calls and asking dealers to reach out to their customers. There’s also been pervasive news coverage, including congressional hearings and NHTSA announcements.
The automaker also tapped “big data” to reach people. It shared owner names and car registration data for unrepaired vehicles with Tustin data marketing firm Acxiom. Acxiom then used the information to post messages on how to get the car repaired on the individual’s Facebook page or while they were playing online games such as Candy Crush Saga or Words with Friends, Carney said.
These efforts helped GM get 60 percent of the cars repaired in about nine months, one of the best rates among large recalls in such a time period, Friedman said.
All automakers should adopt GM’s approach, Friedman said.
Other strategies could get cars repaired more quickly, Ditlow said.
State departments of motor vehicles should have a digital tie-in to the NHTSA’s federal database, notifying state officials if a car being registered has an outstanding recall repair, Ditlow said. They then could force the owner to repair the car being registering, he said.
Additionally, insurance companies might look up a vehicle’s recall history when someone purchases or renews coverage, then ask owners to make repairs. Ditlow said. Requiring used-car dealers to make sure any recall work is completed before selling a vehicle would also take defective cars off the road, he said.
At the bottom of the article below is a list of reasonable proposals that would strengthen NHTSA and work to protect consumers from the egregious conduct witnessed recently, whether it's TOYOTA'S FAILURE TO CORRECT SUDDEN UNINTENDED ACCELERATION, GM's ignition switch failures, TAKATA EXPLODING AIRBAGS.
Will the Do-Nothing Congress pass anything sensible?
Will the Auto Industry tolerate reasonable oversight?
Mark Rosekind faces a confirmation hearing with lawmakers who have demanded reforms.
By Ryan Beene
Automotive NewsNovember 30, 2014 - 12:01 am ET
WASHINGTON -- As an expert on human fatigue, Mark Rosekind is well-suited to steer the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration toward the era of autonomous driving and connected-car technologies.
But in the near term, Rosekind will have to prove to members of Congress that he is up to the task of revitalizing an agency beset by lapses exposed in the General Motors ignition switch and Takata airbag scandals.
Rosekind will need to address "how to restore the public's trust in America's auto safety watchdog ... the need to implement the cultural change that's needed at the agency" and how it can keep up with the fast-changing auto industry, said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who heads the Senate Commerce Committee's consumer-protection panel.
Rosekind, who was appointed last month to head NHTSA, faces a Senate confirmation process that begins Wednesday and will put him face to face with several lawmakers who have been harshly critical of the agency and demanded reform. NHTSA has been without a Senate-confirmed administrator since January, when David Strickland stepped down and left his deputy, David Friedman, to serve as NHTSA's public face.
McCaskill: How to restore trust
The senators who will pass judgment on Rosekind have proposed several bills that would boost NHTSA's funding and enforcement powers, and they are likely to demand a commensurate level of responsiveness and accountability on the part of the regulator.
A lack of agency resources has been a recurring theme of congressional hearings into the GM and Takata recalls. NHTSA allocates just $10 million a year to its roughly 50 staffers who investigate defects in automobiles, buses, commercial vehicles, heavy-duty trucks and child car seats. By comparison, GM alone hired 35 safety investigators this year to beef up its defect investigation department, on top of the staff it already had, CEO Mary Barra told a U.S. House committee in June.
"NHTSA and Dr. Rosekind will face serious challenges and must do a better job discerning danger in cases like those involving GM ignition switches and Takata airbags, which imperiled drivers long after NHTSA had reason to act," Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said in a statement. "At NHTSA, regulatory capture has created a failure to ask tough questions and has needlessly put lives at risk," he added, referring to the close relationship between the agency and the industry it regulates.
Since 2010, Rosekind has been a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates major transportation accidents. He was a NASA official in the 1990s, where he led a program to evaluate and prevent the effects of pilot fatigue, and he founded a fatigue-management firm after leaving the agency.
At NHTSA, Rosekind must overcome his limited experience with the auto industry and with running a large organization.
"Given the GM ignition switch and now Takata, I would have expected someone with more of a hands-on experience in vehicle safety," Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, told Reuters.
But some of NHTSA's outspoken critics were pleased with Rose-kind's nomination. Joan Claybrook, NHTSA's administrator under President Jimmy Carter, called Rosekind "an excellent choice."
"He understands regulation and law enforcement, both of which are critical as the leader of NHTSA," she said. "And he recognizes that regulators are not necessarily popular no matter what they do."
On the docket
Lawmakers have introduced several bills this year to improve compliance with and enforcement of federal auto safety laws.
• Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 2014* Sponsor: Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif.
Requires more automaker disclosures about fatal accidents and greater public access to safety reports, increases NHTSA funding for vehicle safety programs, boosts maximum agency fine to $200 million
• Early Warning Reporting System Improvement Act Sponsor: Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass.
Requires more automaker disclosures about fatal accidents and greater public access to safety reports, requires NHTSA to upgrade its online databases and provide public notice of all defect investigations
• Motor Vehicle and Highway Safety Enhancement Act Sponsor: Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.
Doubles funding for NHTSA's vehicle safety operations over 6 years, raises or eliminates caps on NHTSA fines for violations, gives federal prosecutors more freedom to pursue criminal charges against safety-law violators
• Whistleblower bill Sponsor: Sen. John Thune, R-S.D.
Provides cash incentives to encourage industry employees to alert officials about faulty products
• Hide No Harm Act Sponsor: Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.
Makes it a crime, punishable by fines and prison time, for an executive to knowingly conceal corporate actions that pose risk of death or serious injury
*Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., introduced a similar bill in the Senate.
N.H.T.S.A. has received numerous complaints from the owners of 2003-8 Honda Accords that side curtain air bags deployed when a door was slammed or while driving, although the cars were not involved in crashes.Credit American Honda
Federal regulators have intensified an investigation into the inadvertent deployment of side air bags on 2008 Honda Accords. The action comes as owners of Accords from the 2003-4 and 2008 model years face a deadline next month to file claims in a class-action suit over a similar problem.
The investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration covers about 335,000 Accords from the 2008 model year. Regulators are concerned that the side air bags along the outer edges of the ceiling and the seats may deploy when a door is slammed, according to a report posted on the safety agency’s website. The air bags are designed to protect an occupant’s head and chest in a side impact. Honda began installing those systems for the 2003 model year, and by 2008 was equipping every Honda except the S2000 convertible with the system, the automaker said.
The agency began its investigation in January, based on complaints from owners. Late last month, federal regulators said they were intensifying the investigation after receiving reports of 293 cases of the side air bags deploying when a door was slammed shut. Fourteen injuries were reported, the severity of which was not noted.
The inadvertent deployment of side air bags is also the issue in a class-action lawsuit filed in 2009 in a federal district court in California. The suit covers some 2008 Accords, as well as 2003-4 models, and claims that the side-impact air bags are defective because they deploy without an accident, including while the vehicle is moving. The suit also says that Honda told owners, incorrectly, that there is no defect and that the automaker refuses to reimburse customers for repairs that typically cost $3,000 to $6,000.
This November, Jack Zouhary, a judge with the United States District Court for the Central District of California, will consider giving final approval to settlement. He gave tentative approval in January, and owners were sent letters this year. They have until Sept. 2 to file a form seeking compensation for past air-bag deployments.
While Honda agreed to the settlement, it did not admit there was a defect.
According to the terms of the settlement, owners of Accords from the 2003-4 and 2008 model years will be reimbursed for the cost of repairs if they already have already experienced an inadvertent deployment and previously complained to Honda or an authorized dealer. There will also be a two-year warranty for future air-bag deployments for all 2008 owners, but not the owners of the 2003-4 models.
“I think it was just a compromise and a recognition of the age of the car,” Mike Arias, one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers, said in a telephone interview.
Owners of the 2008 Accords would get a better deal if the N.H.T.S.A. investigation led to a recall. Honda would be required to fix all of the air bags, not just reimburse car owners whose air bags had deployed. The government also has the authority to require an automaker to reimburse an owner for a previous repair.
The settlement does not cover 2005-7 Accords.
“Honda made changes to its collision detection systems, which appear to have addressed the inadvertent deployment issue,” Mr. Arias wrote in an email. The numbers of deployments for those years “were extremely low.”
According to the agency consumer complaint database, there were 24 complaints from owners of 2005-7 Accords about inadvertent deployments of the side air bags while the vehicles were moving.
“I was driving on the interstate with the flow of traffic, approximately 60 miles per hour, when there was a sudden explosion and smoke filled the inside of my Honda Accord,” the owner of a 2007 model wrote in a report to the agency late in 2012. “The air bags had deployed for no apparent reason.”
Clarence Ditlow, the executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, said in a telephone interview that there was no excuse for not covering the 2005-7 models.
“If there is less of a problem with the intermediate years, then there are fewer claims that are paid out,” he said. “So why not cover them?” He added that the owners of 2003-4 models should have the same two-year extended warranty as the owners of the 2008 models.
Chris Martin, a Honda spokesman, wrote in an email, “I can’t add anything further regarding the process that went into the settlement. We normally don’t provide detailed comment on pending litigation.”
Under the tentative settlement, the three law firms that filed the suit could receive up to $1.2 million in fees and expenses. Mr. Arias said the firms invested more than $1.5 million into the case and would be losing money.
In response to the federal investigation of the 2008 models, Honda has denied there is a safety problem, saying in a report that “more times than not the person who is slamming the door is the person who has vacated the seat in the vehicle. As a result, the seat is unoccupied and therefore the deployment poses no risk to that seating position.”
Honda has had other problems with air bags recently. One was an issue with front air bags made by the Takata Corporation that were built with an inflator that could explode and shower the passenger compartment with metal fragments. Since late in 2008, Honda has recalled about 8.9 million vehicles worldwide for that problem, Mr. Martin wrote in an email. Honda also said that there were two deaths linked to the defect in the United States.
The auto industry this year has recalled a record number of vehicles for various safety problems, including millions recalled for air bag-related issues.
Correction: August 21, 2014
An earlier version of this article misstated the government’s authority over payments for previously performed repairs. It is not the case that federal regulators cannot require an automaker to reimburse an owner; they can.
Toyota's KILLER vehicles are STILL on the road
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*Update 11/21/2019 - This 11/3/2019 article exposes the scandal of thug
goon Toyota's many dangerous **vehicles that are still on the road.** If
the link d...
Highlights of an Injustice…
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Please note that as of July 1, 2017, the JoanTreppa.Wordpress.com blog has
been discontinued and in its place is my new website JoanTreppa.com. I have
tran...
