Tag Archives: Auto Safety

Takata Heads Back to Congress over Faulty Airbags

by Aaron M. Kessler, The New York Times

Takata air bag

Legislators and critics of auto safety regulators have questioned whether the entire structure of regional recalls, which allows automakers or suppliers to limit safety recalls to certain states, should be re-examined or eliminated. Takata’s refusal to comply with regulators’ order to make the recalls national could test the limits of the current structure’s ability to handle such safety issues, coming in a year of a string of recalls by General Motors over ignition switches, which prompted their own congressional hearings. Read More ›

Takata “Deeply Sorry” to Those Affected by Defective Airbags, Still Reluctant on Nationwide Recall

by Ashlee Kieler, Consumerist

Senators Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Ed Markey of Massachusetts, both members of the Committee, pressured the auto executives to answer questions about the slow-pace related to replacing defective airbags and the failure to expand the scope of the recall. “It strikes me that these airbags failed, but the system failed equally if not more,” Blumenthal says. “I want to join Sen. Markey in his calling for a national recall of all cars with these airbags in passenger and driver’s side.”
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Deadline Extended for G.M. Accident Claims

by Danielle Ivory and Rachel Abrams, The New York Times

Although G.M. has recalled about 16.5 million vehicles this year for ignition-related flaws, the compensation fund relates specifically to a pool of about 2.6 million cars that were recalled starting in February, including models of the Chevrolet Cobalt and Saturn Ion. Officials at the automaker knew about problems in the cars for more than a decade, but failed to alert regulators and the public until this year. The cars have a defective ignition switch that can suddenly cut off engine power and deactivate airbags. Read More ›

CFC Addresses Benefits and Risks of Driverless Cars

Noting that the technology could reduce accidents if it’s widely adopted, CFC Executive Director Richard Holober stressed the need to ensure that any savings get passed along to consumers under Proposition 103. He also cited concerns about who would have access to data from the vehicles, and of possible meddling by hackers. Read More ›

GM Ordered Switches Nearly 2 Months Before Recall

by Tom Krisher, The Associated Press

The switches can slip out of the run position, causing engines in cars such as the Chevrolet Cobalt to stall. If that happens, the power steering, brakes and air bags are disabled, and people can lose control of their cars. GM eventually recalled 2.6 million small cars for the problem, which has caused at least 32 deaths. The emails in the chain, which run from December into February, call the matter “urgent” and eventually use the words “safety issue.” Read More ›

It’s the Worst Year Ever for Auto Recalls. Why Are So Many Dangerous Cars Still on the Road?

by Drew Harwell, The Washington Post

Those defective cars can then spread widely to used car lots and the driveways of unsuspecting buyers. About 3.5 million recalled cars and trucks were listed for sale last year, according to Carfax. Keeping track of what cars are problematic can also prove a hassle: Stericycle, a recall consultant and service firm for automakers, said there have been 544 separate recalls announced this year, or nearly two recalls a day. Read More ›

It Looked Like a Stabbing, but Takata Air Bag Was the Killer

by Hiroko Tabuchi and Christopher Jensen, The New York Times

Ms. Tran became at least the third death associated with the mushrooming recalls of vehicles containing defective air bags made by Takata, a Japanese auto supplier. … Safety experts say that more rupture cases could be going unnoticed, or underreported, leaving affected cars on the road. For example, a California lawyer says that a fourth driver, Hai Ming Xu, 47, was killed in September 2013 by an air bag that ruptured in his 2002 Acura. The authorities have not determined a reason for the injuries, though his coroner’s report cited tears in his air bag and facial trauma from a foreign object.
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Automotive safety agency slow to open investigations

by The Associated Press, San Francisco Chronicle

The Associated Press reviewed all 15 petitions filed by drivers with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration since 2010 and found the agency missed the legal deadline to grant or deny the requests 12 times. The agency has been criticized for failing to connect the dots among thousands of consumer complaints it received last decade about small GM cars with defective ignition switches. GM finally recalled the cars this year. The faulty switches have been linked to at least 13 deaths. Read More ›

Honda expands recall by up to 1 million cars

by Chris Woodyard, USA Today

The single shrapnel-spewing deployment of an air bag in an old Accord has led Honda, Honda, one of eight automakers caught up in the recalls of Takata air bags, to expand its recall by 500,000 to 1 million vehicles. The expansion is limited to cars in California. The air bags can rupture with too much force when a crash occurs. When they do, they spew metal chunks that can injure a car’s occupants. Read More ›

GM has officially recalled more vehicles in 2014 than it has sold in the last 7 years

by Ashlee Kieler, Consumerist

cadillac tombstones

On Monday, the company announced the recall of 7.6 million vehicles in the United States – most of them for the same inadvertent ignition key rotation that has been linked to at least three fatalities. So far in 2014, GM has recalled nearly 25 million vehicles in the United States through more than 50 recall campaigns. A quick look at GM’s sales records for the past ten years shows that the company has now officially recalled in the first six months of 2014 more cars that it has sold from 2007 to 2013. Read More ›

SB 686: Drive to stop sale of recalled cars runs out of gas

A scandalous and possibly unprecedented year for automobile recalls wasn’t enough to persuade the Assembly Business Professions and Consumer Protection Committee to maintain SB 686’s safety drive; the measure went down to defeat June 17. “This Legislature just wasn’t up to standing up to the car dealers,” said Rosemary Shahan, president of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, the organization that sponsored the bill. She vowed to continue to press the issue.
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California bill would require recalled cars be repaired before sale

by David Undercoffler & Jerry Hirsch, Los Angeles Times

Used cars that get recalled by manufacturers need to be fixed before they’re sold. That’s what a bill pending in the California Legislature would require of all new and used car dealers in the state. And with 2014 on pace to break the auto industry records for most recalls in a year, the bill is taking on more urgency, supporters said Tuesday at a news conference. A vast majority of those recalls involve older vehicles. Read More ›

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