October 21, 2015
Tomorrow October 22, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is scheduled to hold a public hearing ostensibly to explore coordinating a national recall of defective Takata airbag inflators. This auto safety crisis had been brewing internally at Takata since at least November 2001, when Honda received its first field report (noted as part of a recall […]
September 23, 2015
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s whirlwind makeover continues. Monday, the agency published two Federal Register Notices – one inviting comments on a forthcoming guidance document about the sharing of safety defect information discovered in civil litigation and a second notice proposing rulemaking to codify procedures for the assessment of civil penalties. After years of […]
August 27, 2015
On Tuesday, the New York firm of Labaton Sucharow LLP filed a nationwide consumer class action in a Los Angeles federal court against 10 automakers who produce and market keyless ignition vehicles to force the implementation of an automatic cut-off feature. The lawsuit is in response to a longstanding, widespread design defect that leads drivers […]
August 20, 2015
Safety Research & Strategies, a product safety research and consulting firm with a specialty in automotive defects, has added automotive electronics diagnostic expert Aaron Beltram to its interdisciplinary team. Beltram is an experienced automotive technician, working for six years in Chrysler dealerships. In his last job, Beltram mentored the entry-level technicians, and was the service […]
July 29, 2015
NHTSA started the week with a bang – wresting from a formerly defiant Fiat Chrysler its signature on a detailed Consent Order, admitting that it violated the Safety Act in myriad ways, agreeing to pay a $105 million fine, buy back some unremedied recalled vehicles and allow a Special Monitor to look over its shoulder. […]
July 27, 2015
This month has been a sad one for safety advocates with the passing of two well-respected and pioneering engineers, who also happened to be friends and colleagues: Donald L. Friedman and Steven M. Forrest. Both were born in the Northeast, but made their homes in the Santa Barbara area; both were affiliated with General Motors. […]
July 23, 2015
The Safety Record Blog has been most pleased to inform our readership, from time to time, of the skullduggery emanating from the corporate offices of the Goodyear Rubber Company. Goodyear has made quite name for itself as champion discovery hardball player – years-long production delays, withholding relevant documents, offering less-than-truthful testimony from corporate reps and […]
July 15, 2015
For decades, the tire makers and the tire sellers have been a couple with an uneasy relationship – mainly because more than the Rubber Manufacturers Association, which represents the former, loves the people who buy and sell their products, it hates change. And the RMA has ably defended its member companies against all kinds of […]
July 10, 2015
When David Strickland went directly from representing industry’s interests as the Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to representing industry’s interests as a member of the Washington D.C. lobbying firm Venable, LLC, he was part of a proud agency tradition of lending the dignity of their public offices to private commercial interests. The […]
July 9, 2015
Today, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration levied the maximum penalty against Indiana-based heavy vehicle manufacturer Forest River – $35 million for failing to launch timely recalls and for failing to fulfill a host of reporting obligations to NHTSA. (Spartan Motors, another manufacturer of heavy vehicles, also got dinged for $9 million yesterday for failing […]