Current Events

BMW will be issuing a recall for over 19,000 i3 REx (range-extended) cars towards the beginning of April due to concerns about fuel vapors potentially starting fires, according to recent reports.

The issue, according to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, is that the BMW i3 REx’s fuel tank can rub up against the wire protection sleeve of the battery-positive cable (which is ribbed), and that over time the vent line may wear and lead to the formation of a hole, which fuel vapors could then enter the engine compartment through.

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What started out as a good week for the Lotus transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) valve was quickly derailed as manufacturer Boston Scientific voluntarily issued a mass recall of all Lotus devices.

The issue: a problem with premature release of a pin connecting the valve to its delivery system. Operators had encountered the problem this fall in the next-generation Lotus Edge line of devices -- but Boston Scientific claimed to have fixed the issue a month ago.

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Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has posted a safety recall notice with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announcing that 69,298 Dodge and Chrysler all-wheel drive vehicles may be at risk.

Dodge, Chrysler Loose Bolt Problem

The problem involves the potential loosening of the front driveshaft bolts, which could lead to the loss of power when driving. Affected cars include Dodge Charger LD with AWD with model year 2014-2017 and MY Chrysler 300 LX with AWD models 2014-2017.

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Mercedes-Benz is recalling roughly 12,500 E-Class vehicles from the 2017 model year to fix a manufacturing problem that could increase the risk of injury during collisions. 

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration explains that the occupant detection control unit in some 2017 E-Class cars may have been improperly installed.

That's a real concern, because the control unit turns the front passenger airbags on and off, depending on whether the front passenger seat is occupied by an adult. If it deactivates the airbags because it thinks that cargo or a child seat have been placed in the front passenger seat, adult passengers could face a dramatically higher risk of injury in a crash.

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Studies drug companies fund after medicines go on sale may be too small to detect rare side effects, a recent German study suggests.

Even if these so-called post-marketing studies do uncover previously undetected adverse events, physicians conducting the trials are often required to keep results confidential, limiting the potential for regulators or patients to learn about safety issues, according to the study in The BMJ.

When drugs are approved based on tests in only a few thousand patients, very little is known about long-term safety or the potential for rare side effects to occur when tens of thousands of people take the medicines, said lead study author Dr. Angela Spelsberg, medical director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center in Aachen, Germany.

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Medical device companies, like the hundreds that dot Minnesota, do not know everything about the safety of their products.

The Food and Drug Administration requires device makers to prove new devices are safe to use as directed, but there’s only so much testing the agency can require before approving or denying a new product for market. That’s why the FDA requires “postmarket” surveillance, which includes investigating all complaints about their devices and reporting confirmed problems publicly.

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"At the current rate, we are applying these measures to 20,000 cars a week," he told MPs on the Transport Committee.

But after he had left the hearing, Mr Willis was accused of lying to MPs over whether he had supplied the government with promised information.

A VW spokesman said Mr Willis had indeed handed over what was promised.

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BMW has announced a recall of nearly 9,000 vehicles from the 2011 and 2012 model years. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a key driveshaft component on those cars may be prone to break.

The component in question is the rear driveshaft constant-velocity joint (aka the CV joint), which was manufactured in Germany by Vibracoustic GmbH & Co. KG. NHTSA documents indicate that the rivet connections on the CV joint "may have insufficient fatigue strength.
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The U.S. Justice Department has joined a whistleblower lawsuit against UnitedHealth Group Inc that claims the country's largest health insurer and its units and affiliates overcharged Medicare hundreds of millions of dollars, a law firm representing the whistleblower said on Thursday.

"We reject these more than five-year-old claims and will contest them vigorously," UnitedHealth spokesman Matthew Burns said in a statement.

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Mercedes-Benz is recalling some several models because the windshield may come out.

Recalled models include: 2016 GLE350 4Matic and GLS 450 4Matic,  2017 GLE 400 4Matic, GLE 350 4Matic, GLE 350, GLE 550E 4Matic, GLE 63 AMG, GLE 63S AMG, GLE 43 AMG 4Matic Coupe, GLE 63S AMG 4Matic Coupe, GLS 450 4Matic, GLS 550 4Matic, and GLS 63 AMG 4Matic vehicles

The company said the windshield bonding may be insufficient and, as a result, the windshield may separate from the vehicle in a crash.

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U.S. motor vehicle deaths last year topped 40,000 for the first time since 2007 as cheap gasoline and a healthy economy encouraged motorists to drive more, according to new estimates released Wednesday by the National Safety Council.

Roadside fatalities last year hit 40,200, a 6 percent gain from 2015 and up 14 percent from 2014, according to the group. The trend reflects similar findings by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which in January reported an 8 percent rise in deadly crashes in the first nine months of 2016 compared to the prior-year period.
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