Current Events

You can add racketeering charges to the problems facing General Motors. Lawyers representing consumers who are suing GM over faulty ignition switches have added racketeering allegations to their suit, claiming the company conspired to conceal the safety defect that has been blamed for more than 100 deaths.

The government has not brought any criminal charges against GM, although the automaker did pay a $35 million fine for not alerting the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to the defective switches quickly enough.

GM has recalled 2.6 million vehicles equipped with ignition switches that can upexpectedly shut off the engine. That, in turn, cuts power to the airbags, power steering, brakes and other onboard equipment.

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Washington — A seventh death may be linked to a defective Takata air bag that’s part of the largest-ever auto safety recall in U.S. history.

The family of a Louisiana woman killed in a crash in a 2005 Honda Civic in April filed suit in U.S. District Court citing that the crash may have been caused by a defective Takata air bag sending metal fragments into the driver.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has reached out to Honda and Takata to gather more information.

NHTSA spokesman Gordon Trowbride said the agency "is aware of this crash, and we are working to gather information from Honda and from the attorney in the case."

The defect is linked to at least 95 incidents of improper deployments and more than 100 injuries.

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As the drumbeat for adding collision avoidance technology as standard equipment on new vehicles gets louder, Acura’s recall of two models due to a problem with similar technology shows it is not infallible.

The brand recalled nearly 48,000 MDX and RLX models from 2014 and 2015 because the automatic emergency braking systems can malfunction. Acura’s “Collision Mitigation Braking System” can misinterpret the data it receives causing the vehicle to brake unnecessarily causing a rear-end collision.

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It started with a hunch about malfunctioning highway guardrails. It led to the biggest known whistle-blower award in U.S. history.

Joshua Harman, a Virginian with two small highway safety companies, made a discovery in late 2011 that perhaps only a guardrail maker could: A big competitor had changed the dimensions of its roadside safety device by as much as an inch here and there, he said, without telling federal regulators.

As designed, Trinity Industries Inc.’s ET-Plus system was meant to turn the end of a guardrail into a de facto shock absorber. The altered units, as Harman saw it, were locking up when hit, spearing cars and their occupants.

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A Texas lawyer representing plaintiffs who are suing General Motors Co. over its ignition switch has filed a motion accusing the Detroit automaker and its outside law firm King & Spalding of conspiring to cover up the defect.

Lawyer Bob Hilliard filed a motion Thursday in the class-action lawsuits consolidated in U.S. District Court in Manhattan seeking additional documents from GM and Atlanta-based King & Spalding, accusing them of “burying what they knew” and settling cases that could have shed light on the deadly defect.

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Washington — The General Motors Co. ignition switch compensation fund said Monday that two more death claims were approved last week, hiking the total to 111.

The fund run by lawyer Ken Feinberg said it has also approved 12 new injury claims, bringing the total number of approved claims for injuries to 220. Of that total, 12 are for serious injuries and 179 are for less severe injuries.

GM is paying at least $1 million in each death claim and has set aside $550 million to pay claims.

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Fiat Chrysler Automobiles admitted in a filing this week that it missed deadlines to notify customers in five separate safety recalls, which could mean a hefty fine from safety regulators in the U.S.

Back on May 18, the U.S. Department of Transportation sent FCA a special order demanding the company provide information on its recent recall performance.

The automaker confirmed in an 18-page document sent to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Monday that it exceeded the legal 60-day limit of notifying owners of new recalls in five recent campaigns, according to USA Today.

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Robin Miller, a 62-year-old oncologist in Atlanta with bladder cancer, was scheduled to receive a potentially lifesaving drug in December. But her doctor’s office called shortly before the appointment to say: “Sorry, we don’t have any. We can’t give it to you,” according to Dr. Miller.

The disruption was due to a global shortage of the drug, BCG, which arose after manufacturing problems at two of the few global suppliers. Without the drug, Dr. Miller feared her cancer would come back and she would have to have her bladder removed, a step she called “barbaric.”

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About half the replacement air-bag kits that Takata Corp. shipped to automakers last month have inflators made by competitors, including some with a different chemical than the one linked to explosions that have killed six people.

That portion is expected to reach 70 percent by the end of the year, Takata said in a statement on Monday. The Tokyo-based company has been relying on competitors to help it replace defective air bags in about 34 million vehicles, the largest auto-safety recall in U.S. history.

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The U.S. Justice Department has issued a subpoena seeking information from Olympus on the manufacturing and sales of a specialized medical scope linked to a recent series of deadly superbug outbreaks at hospitals across the country.

Olympus is the largest manufacturer of duodenoscopes, which have been linked to infections in scores of patients, typically with an antibiotic-resistant bacteria known as CRE, which has mortality rates of 40% or higher. In a public report issued this month on its latest financial results, the company noted that it had received a subpoena in March from the Justice Department seeking "information relating to duodenoscopes that Olympus manufactures and sells."

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Former Rep. Steve LaTourette, who’s severely ill with pancreatic cancer, is planning to file a medical malpractice lawsuit against the federal government, accusing Capitol Hill doctors of failing to provide him with information that could have led to an earlier diagnosis.

The Ohio Republican, who was diagnosed last year, filed administrative claims against the government for what he says was negligent care from the Office of the Attending Physician of the U.S. Congress, which oversees lawmakers’ primary care. The filing is the first step toward a lawsuit.

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