GM is in the hot seat again for causing vehicle owners headaches. Many of GM’s full-size truck and SUV models are the focus of customer complaints regarding vibrations that are – literally – making giving drivers headaches. Complaints also include general discomfort and even vertigo. Are GM’s bad vibes making drivers sick?
Corporate America and the politicians it owns scored a victory on January 8 when the FACT Act passed in House of Representatives after long debate and several Democrat-proposed amendments being rejected. It moves on to the Senate and, if passed there, has a hot date with a Presidential veto.
Last week, Honda confirmed the ninth Takata airbag death, this one in a crash involving a Honda Accord in July 2015. This is the eighth confirmed Takata airbag-related death in the U.S. and the first one to occur since April 2015. Honda cooperated with regulators in an inspection of the parts involved and “confirmed that the Takata driver’s front airbag inflator ruptured.” The company stated that the “injuries related to this airbag inflator rupture likely resulted in the tragic death of the underage driver.”
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) made the naughty list this year. In Washington, DC that is; the North Pole has yet to issue a comment. Senators Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) certainly commented about NHTSA’s recall completion rates in the Takata airbag crisis, though. The Senators’ statement follows.
A potentially sad holiday story had a happy ending. According to 12WHAM in Rochester, New York, 89-year old Anthony DePinto left home on December 17 and got lost. Anthony has dementia. He didn’t have a cell phone but thought that OnStar would be willing to help him and pressed the button. They weren’t, though. OnStar unhelpful to non-subscribers in emergencies?
Yesterday, I wrote a piece on the 3rd wave of asbestos disease in America. Today, I want to look at another piece of that problem. People like Kris Penny are exposed to asbestos through working in environments that contain it. There is another segment of the population that will soon be a part of the 3rd wave and they are asbestos remediation workers. Removing asbestos can be deadly duty.
When we hear the words “asbestos” and “mesothelioma,” we automatically think of victims in their 60s, 70s or 80s. Individuals who worked as miners, millers & manufacturers or insulators and shipbuilders in a time before safety measures were in place are the usual mesothelioma patients. Meet Kris Penny, the face of the U.S.’ third wave of asbestos disease.
I never thought I’d approve of “backdoor bills,” those sneaky little bits of legislation that get tacked onto the end of larger, unrelated legislation. In fact, I really don’t approve of such underhanded tactics. However, our friends in DC just pulled one that at least helps people. A tiny addendum to the 2009 page federal
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) broke out the big hammer again. This time, Fiat Chrysler was the nail. NHTSA fined Fiat Chrysler $70M for withholding safety data.
As bad an idea as that may seem, some drivers are choosing driving with no airbags over risking an explosion of defective Takata airbags. Millions of drivers are waiting for recall replacements but, for the majority, there’s no end in sight. One man took matters into his own hands, literally, and removed the Takata airbags from his vehicle.