Vehicle Safety: Automatic Braking Standard to be Adopted by 20 Auto Manfacturers

Transportation injuries contribute to a large percentage of work related accidents. Thank maybe changing soon. The U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety announced today a historic commitment by 20 automakers representing more than 99 percent of the U.S. auto market to make automatic emergency braking a standard feature on virtually all new cars no later than NHTSA's 2022 reporting year, which begins Sept. 1, 2022.

Documents Show General Motors Kept Silent on Fatal Crashes

Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.nytimes.com

The car crash that killed Gene Erickson caught the attention of federal regulators. Why did the Saturn Ion he was traveling in, along a rural Texas road, suddenly swerve into a tree? Why did the air bags fail? General Motors told federal authorities that it could not provide answers. But only a month earlier, a G.M. engineer had concluded in an internal evaluation that the Ion had most likely lost power, disabling its air bags, according to a subsequent internal investigation commissioned by G.M. Now, G.M.'s response, as well as its replies to queries in other crashes obtained by The New York Times from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, casts doubt on how forthright the automaker was with regulators over a defective ignition switch that G.M. has linked to at least 13 deaths over the last decade. They provide details for the first time on the issue at the heart of a criminal investigation by the Justice Department: whether G.M., in its interaction with safety regulators, obscured a deadly defect that would also injure perhaps hundreds of people. The company repeatedly found a way not to answer the simple question from regulators of what led to a crash. In at least three cases of fatal crashes, including the accident that killed Mr. Erickson, G.M. said that it had not assessed the cause. In another fatal crash, G.M. said that attorney-client privilege may have prevented it from answering. And in other cases, the automaker was more blunt, writing, “G.M....

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Honda, Mazda, Nissan Recall Vehicles Over Potentially Explosive Air Bags

Today's post is shared from reuters.com

Honda Motor Co and other Japanese automakers on Monday recalled more cars with potentially explosive air bags supplied by Takata Corp, bringing the total recall so far to around 10.5 million vehicles over the past five years.

The series of recalls cover both passenger-side and driver-side air bags, which the world's second-biggest automotive safety parts maker manufactured in 2000-02. The total ranks it among the five biggest recalls in the industry's history.

And the tally is expanding further as Nissan and Chrysler also on Monday recalled more vehicles in some high humidity regions in the United States, which they called "field action", at the request of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to replace Takata air bag inflators.

Honda said it was recalling about 2.03 million vehicles globally over potentially flawed Takata air bag inflators made in 2000-02 with a risk of exploding and shooting out shrapnel at drivers and passengers, expanding a recall from April 2013. It cited how explosive material used to inflate Takata passenger-side air bags had been handled and processed in 2000-02 at plants in the United States and Mexico.

Nissan Motor Co said it would recall 755,000 vehicles worldwide, while Mazda Motor Corp said it would call back 159,807 vehicles, both also expanding April 2013 recalls.

Takata CEO Shigehisa Takada and Chief Operating Officer Stefan Stocker said the company was working with safety...


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