GM reverses stance on liability claims

Caving under pressure from a dozen state attorneys general, GM agreed to assume responsibility for product liability claims filed after it emerges from bankruptcy as a new company, even those claims involving vehicles made by the old company.

Courts typically allow companies under bankruptcy protection to leave claims behind in bankruptcy and emerge with a clean slate, a precedent G.M. and the government were relying upon, the New York Times reported. Chrysler, which completed a government-backed restructuring this month, left both product liability claims and unwanted dealers with its old estate, now known as Old CarCo.

As we reported last week, concern had been expressed by at least one safety expert that an absence of liability claims would have a chilling effect on recalls because the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration uses death and injury data to scan for defect trends. "If the claims aren't filed, we lose an important defect surveillance tool," said Sean Kane, president of Safety Research & Strategies.

The modification, outlined in court papers filed by GM late Friday, is a partial victory for consumer groups and attorneys general, the Washington Post reported. "Congress still needs to step in and do something for Chrysler victims," Joanne Doroshow, executive director of the Center for Justice and Democracy told the Post. "That bankruptcy is over. The only way for victims to get help is if there's a law that establishes it."

Report: Automaker bankruptcies will have a chilling effect on recalls

A new report predicts that a loophole created by the bankruptcies of General Motors and Chrysler will make it possible for the companies to avoid issuing recalls of defective cars built prior to the filings. The research firm posits that vehicles with safety defects sold before the bankruptcies will continue to cause deaths and injuries long after the companies emerge as new entities.

The report, released by Safety Research & Strategies, examines the consequences of a provision in the GM and Chrysler bankruptcies that allows the automakers to shed liability for the vehicles built pre-bankruptcy. "Based on data provided by both automakers to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), more than 3,400 Americans will be injured or killed by a defective Chrysler or GM vehicle during the first year of the post-bankruptcy era," the report states.

Our Cars Blog has been following the liability issue after questions were raised about whether standard consumer protections would apply to owners of GM and Chrysler vehicles. In their bankruptcy proceedings, both companies sought protection from pending and future liability claims against their products manufactured before their Chapter 11 filings.

Because NHTSA uses death and injury data to scan for defect trends, the absence of such claims might decrease the number of recalls and remedies conducted by the automakers after their bankruptcies. "If the claims aren't filed, we lose an important defect surveillance tool," said Sean Kane, president of Safety Research & Strategies. "And if the companies bear no liability for deaths and injuries caused by the uncorrected defects, what incentive do they have to recall?"

Between the third quarter of 2003 and the fourth quarter of 2008, Chrysler fielded 3,497 death and injury claims; GM fielded 15,284, according to the report. These represent an annual average of 636 and 2,779 casualties (individual deaths and injuries) respectively. With more than 40 million vehicles in the U.S. fleet, the two companies accounted for 47 percent of all claims filed against auto manufacturers during that time period. Yet, GM and Chrysler represent only 38 percent of the market share

From 2004 to 2008, Chrysler issued 109 recalls, affecting 11.4 million vehicles; GM launched 129 recalls, affecting 19 million vehicles. "Combined, GM and Chrysler have a disproportionate share of the claims," said Kane. "And there is every reason to conclude that the injury and death rates will continue. But the claims will disappear and that will impact the rate of GM and Chrysler recalls and public safety in the future."

The report features a state-by-state breakdown of Chrysler and GM death and injury claims: Texas, California, Florida, Ohio and New York lead the nation.

Kids and Cars asks for recall after two children perish in locked trunk

After the deaths last week of two Arkansas children who became locked in a car trunk, Kids and Cars has asked General Motors to recall sedans made in the 2000-01 model year before trunk-release latches became standard equipment.

Curtis Markley, 5, and his sister Virgina, 4, of Springdale, AR were discovered dead in the locked trunk of a 2000 Chevrolet Malibu. An autopsy report lists the cause of death as accidental environmental hyperthermia, or high body temperature. The temperature was in the 80s the day the siblings went missing.

Janette Fennell, founder and president of Kids and Cars, said she's sure Curtis and Virginia would have found their way out of the trunk if the car had been equipped with an emergency latch. She is pressing for a recall of older sedans.

Jeannine Fruehan, a spokesman for GM, told the Arkansas Democrat Gazette that she wouldn't speculate whether the company would issue a recall. "The situation is tragic, and we were very sad to learn of the unfortunate deaths of these children. But to speak to what we will do as manufacturer without having more information would be premature," she said.

Every year, some 10 to 20 people die trapped in a car trunk, estimates Fennell. Interior release handles have been mandatory since the 2002 model year. Entrapment incidents mostly happen in older cars, which aren't equipped with release handles.

To remedy that, some carmakers offered retrofit kits, but they are no longer available. Consumer Reports tested a retrofit kit called the Quick-Out Emergency Trunk Release that is available for $18 including shipping and handling. We found the kit easy to install using common tools. The handle glows in the dark making it easy to find, and the force required to pull the trunk release was easy for an adult.

If you are buying a sedan made before 2002, check to see if it's equipped with an interior trunk-release handle. If not, install the Quick-Out Emergency Trunk Release.

Update: Earlier this month we wrote about the deaths of two children mistakenly left in cars—in two separate incidents—who died of hyperthermia. Since then we have learned of the deaths of four more children—two in Florida and one each in Louisiana and Kentucky—who died in this manner. To learn more about children and car safety, visit our car safety section.

A cautionary tale for harried parents: Check the back seat

It’s not yet the height of summer, but high temperatures have killed two children in the past several days. Not outside temperatures though. The heat and the children were inside closed cars.

Yesterday, newspapers in the Bay Area reported  that a four-month-old boy died when his father forgot to drop him at daycare and instead left him in the car all day while he was at work. Although the outside temperature was only in the 60s, reports say the air in the car would likely have topped 100 degrees.

A day before, a three-year-old in Warwick, RI was found dead in a car parked in front of the family’s house. His mother called the police when he was discovered missing, according to the Providence Journal.  Police believe he climbed into the car on his own.

These are heartbreaking updates to data tracked by the department of Geosciences at San Francisco State University, which lists six hyperthermia deaths of children in vehicles so far in 2009.

And in a sadly timed coincidence,  this week the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released "Not-in-traffic surveillance 2007—Children"  Janette Fennell, of the safety group Kids and Cars, noted the importance of the report, but says "their data seriously under counts the actual number of children who die in this manner." Kids and Cars data, she says, "confirms an average of 37 hyperthermia fatalities per year; not the 27 estimated by the agency.”  

NHTSA also offered some safety tips to prevent hyperthermia including:

• Never leave a child unattended in a vehicle.
• Do not let your children play in an unattended vehicle.
• Never leave infants or children in a parked vehicle, even if the windows are partially open or with the engine running and the air conditioning on.
• Make a habit of looking in the vehicle—front and back—before locking the door and walking away.
• If you are bringing your child to daycare, and normally it's your spouse or partner who brings him, have that person call you to make sure everything went according to plan.
• Ask your childcare provider to call you if your child does not show up for childcare.
• Do things to remind yourself that a child is in the vehicle, such as:

        —Writing yourself a note and putting the note where you will see it when you leave the vehicle;
        —Placing your purse, briefcase or something else you need in the back seat so that you will have to check the back seat when you leave the vehicle; or
        —Keeping an object in the car seat, such as a stuffed toy. When the child is buckled in, place the object where the driver will notice it when he or she is leaving the vehicle.

• Always lock vehicle doors and trunks and keep keys out of children's reach. If a child is missing, check the vehicle first, including the trunk.
• If you see a child alone in a hot vehicle, call the police. If they are in distress due to heat, get them out as quickly as possible. Warning signs may include: red, hot, and moist or dry skin, no sweating, a strong rapid pulse or a slow weak pulse, nausea or acting strangely.

Nominee to lead NHTSA withdraws

Chuck Hurley, the intended nominee to oversee the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, has withdrawn his name from consideration, according to the White House.

Hurley has been the Chief Executive Officer of Mothers Against Drunk Driving since 2005. His commitment to tougher fuel efficiency standards was being questioned by some environmental groups as were his ties to the auto industry. MADD receives funding from several automakers including Ford, Toyota and GM, according to the Washington Post.

NHTSA oversees highway safety programs and sets fuel efficiency and safety requirements for car companies.

This week in safety: CU advocates backup cameras

Rear blind zones are a serious safety issue. According to federal statistics, about 228 people were backed over in 2008 in the U.S. when drivers couldn’t see them. Based on our years of experience with backup cameras and sensor systems, Consumers Union recommends a regulation be crafted to mandate such systems in order to remove deadly blind zones behind cars.

In public comments made this week to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, CU, parent of Consumer Reports, recommended that the agency adopt a standard requiring backup cameras and passive sensors to alert drivers when they need to look at the rear-view screen. Read more about backup cameras on our Cars blog.

Other safety news
Hilarity ensues when lawyers and warnings collide
Associated Press via HeraldNet
A toilet seat that attaches to a trailer hitch has gained national recognition—for a warning label that says you'd better not use it while the vehicle is moving. Read more ...

FDA failing to meet food-safety inspection audit goals
USA Today
The Food and Drug Administration is failing to meet its goals for auditing food-safety inspections that states do on its behalf, FDA data show. The FDA fell short of its goal in at least 17 of 39 states it paid to do inspections in the 2007-08 contract year. Read more ...

Accident sparks discussion about the safety of batting helmets
Springfield News-Leader.com
A batting helmet didn't protect Patrick Clegg, the Waynesville High School baseball player who was struck by a pitch and killed last month. That's because it wasn't designed to do so. Read more ...

Silent recall
Mother Jones
A Mother Jones investigation shows that, too often, the recall system fails. While manufacturers make use of their resources and marketing savvy to sell a crib, they do not always make the same effort later to tell consumers that the same crib could be deadly. Read more ...

CPSC to allow youth ATV sales
The Wall Street Journal
The Consumer Product Safety Commission's two commissioners agreed to allow retailers of youth-model all-terrain vehicles to unload their older inventory despite new restrictions on lead content that had prohibited sales. Read more ...

Pools scramble to make safety fix for summer
KXAS (Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas)
Months after a new federal law requiring safer pool drains took effect, local health officials are still scrambling to see how many public pools have made the repairs, before the start of the summer season. Read more ...

Safety news from the CR blogs

• Cars: Risks reduced for teen drivers when parents are watching
• Babies&Kids: Bicycle seats vs. bike trailers for children
• Health: FDA seizes filthy food and supplement ingredients
• Health: How to plan for an emergency
• Money: Can you get swine flu from a dollar bill?

Don't miss these recalls

• 35,000 Wagner paint sprayers (electric shock hazard)
• 2,936 Action Products necklace craft kits (lead)
• 1,300 Jason Evans children's hooded jackets (drawstrings)
• 960 Unilever Fricon upright freezers (fire hazard)
• 670 Torcofix/Torcoflex and Mountz Torque wrenches (spring failure)
• 550 KTM North America off-road motorcycles (front fork failure)
• 370 Ambler Mountain children’s knitted hats (choking hazard) [image above]

General Motors recalls 1.5 million cars

General Motors is recalling nearly 1.5 million Buick, Chevrolet, Oldsmobile and Pontiac mid-sized cars due to a potential engine oil leak that could cause a fire. A total of 1,497,516 vehicles equipped with 3.8 liter engines are involved in the recall.

Recalled were the 1997-2003 Buick Regal; 1998-2003 Chevrolet Lumina, Monte Carlo and Impala; 1998-99 Oldsmobile Intrigue; and 1997-2003 Pontiac Grand Prix, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The recall notice states that: "If the manifold is hot enough and the oil runs below the heath shield, it may ignite into a small flame and spread to the plastic spark plug wire channel and beyond, increasing the risk of an engine compartment fire."

Car owners are advised to contact a dealer who will remove the spark plug wire retention channel at the front of the engine and install two new spark plug wire retainers at no charge. The recall is expected to begin in May. Owners may contact Chevrolet at 1-800-630-2438, Oldsmobile at 1-800-630-6537, and Pontiac at 1-800-620-7668 or visit the Pontiac or GM Web sites.

CEO of MADD named to lead highway safety agency

Chuck Hurley, Chief Executive Officer of Mothers Against Drunk Driving since 2005, has been nominated to be the Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, according to the White House Web site.

Prior to joining MADD, Hurley held senior leadership positions with the National Safety Council and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety over the last 30 years. In addition to his work on drunk driving issues, he has worked with law enforcement on air bag and seat belt issues, teen driving, and child passenger safety. In 2003 he worked with President Obama, then an Illinois state senator, to strengthen that state's seat belt, teen driving, child passenger safety and racial profiling laws.

Vernon Betkey, chairman of the Governors Highway Safety Association, told the Associated Press that Hurley is a “passionate safety advocate whose career has been dedicated to reducing motor vehicle deaths and injuries.”

Car seat tests reveal 'flaws,' the Chicago Tribune reports

The Chicago Tribune, which last year won a Pulitzer Prize for its exposure of faulty governmental regulation of toys, car seats and cribs, this week published an investigation of car seat tests that calls into question the rigor of safety standards for child restraints. Of the 66 infant seats tested in frontal crashes, nearly half of the seats either separated from their bases or exceeded injury limits.

The series of frontal crashes was conducted by federal researchers using 2008 model year vehicles. The Tribune found the results buried in thousands of pages of test reports from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. "What you've uncovered totally reveals the flaws in the current safety standard and also NHTSA's negligence in not reporting this to the public," Joan Claybrook, a former NHTSA administrator and president emeritus of the advocacy group Public Citizen, told the Tribune. In response, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said that he had ordered a "complete top to bottom review of child safety seat regulations."

Written by Patricia Callahan, a member of the Pulitzer Prize winning team, the article goes on to detail how the crash tests were conducted and how the results for two seats were so troubling the seats had to be recalled. The investigation is worth a read, especially for parents of young children who can also find videos of how some popular car seats performed in crash tests.

Car seat recall
Today, NHTSA announced the recall of 5,444 Recaro Signo child restraints because the central front adjuster strap on some seats may slip within the metal adjuster (A-lock) that controls the tightness of the harness, thus endangering the safety of the passenger. The seats were manufactured from February through September 2008. Recaro is in the process of notifying owners of the recall and will replace any defective seat. Owners can contact Recaro customer service at 1-888-473-2290 or visit NHTSA's Safer Car Web site.

Raise the roof-crush standard

Every year about 10,000 people are killed in vehicle rollovers in the U.S., and another 24,000 are severely injured. It’s estimated that crushed roofs likely contribute to serious or fatal injuries in more than a quarter of rollover crashes.

With sobering statistics like that it is hard to believe that the current standard for vehicle roof strength was set by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration way back in 1973, when Richard Nixon was still in the White House and “The Brady Bunch” and “Mannix” were among the top-rated shows on television.

More important, the current standards were written well before millions of rollover-prone SUVs were even on American roads.

That 36-year-old standard requires vehicle roofs to be strong enough to withstand 1.5 times the vehicle’s weight. Testing is done by pressing down a metal plate on the roof over the driver’s seat.

A 2005 law ordered NHTSA to redo the roof crush standard by this past July, but the agency postponed doing that until October, then December, and eventually to April of this year. Ordinarily Consumers Union would oppose such delays, but in this case CU and other safety groups think the delay could result in stronger roof crush standards than those that have heretofore been proposed by NHTSA.

The agency’s idea as currently proposed is to increase roof testing pressure to 2.5 times the vehicle’s weight. CU’s safety team thinks that doesn’t go nearly far enough. Instead, NHTSA should increase testing pressure even more and develop a dynamic test that better reflects real-world rollovers. The test should also factor in how occupants are restrained in a rollover and include a standard to ensure that roof pillars do not reduce visibility. NHTSA has shown with frontal-crash and rollover-resistance testing that it can reduce variability to an acceptable level.

The March issue of Consumer Reports tells the story of Patrick Parker, a man who was injured in a rollover.