Federal prosecutors mull criminal fraud charges against GM over ignition switches.

The Wall Street Journal (6/10, Matthews, Spector, Subscription Publication, 5.68M) reports that the Justice Department is considering charging General Motors Co. with criminal wire fraud linked to the company’s failure to recall millions of vehicles with defective ignition switches. Citing unnamed sources, the Journal reports that Federal prosecutors in New York are leading the investigation after determining that GM probably made misleading statements and concealed information about the faulty switches, which have been linked to more than 100 deaths.

        The Detroit Free Press (6/9, Gardner, 957K) reports that GM CEO Mary Barra said that the company “is cooperating with a federal prosecutor looking at whether it committed wire fraud in its response to defective ignition switches now tied to 111 deaths. ‘We have cooperated fully. We continue to do so,’ Barra said. ‘It is their timeline. Anything else is pure speculation and does no one any good.’” The Free Press notes that Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara and the Justice Department “reached an agreement last year with Toyota under which the Japanese automaker agreed to pay $1.2 billion to resolve wire fraud charges in communicating what the government said was misleading information about the safety of millions of vehicles Toyota recalled in 2010.”

        The AP (6/10, Krisher) reports that Barra “confirmed Tuesday that she has been interviewed by the Justice Department in its criminal probe of how the company handled a deadly ignition switch problem in older small cars.” Barra told reporters “the interview happened last year but said she didn’t know when the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan would release the results of its probe.” 

Xarelto (Rivaroxaban) May Cause Life-Threatening Bleeds

          Approved by the FDA in 2011, Xarelto is one of the newest anticoagulants on the market. Xarelto is a prescription medication used to reduce the risk of stroke and blood clots in people with non-valvular atrial fibrillation. It is also used to treat and prevent deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism, in particular in patients who have recently had knee or hip replacement surgery.

Xarelto, which is manufactured and marketed by Bayer and Janssen Pharmaceuticals, is an alternative to Coumadin (warfarin). Unlike Coumadin, however, there is no approved antidote to quickly reverse the blood-thinning effects of Xarelto. For this reason, Xarelto may substantially increase the risk of severe and uncontrollable bleeds, which may result in serious injury and death.

Individuals who were prescribed Xarelto and suffered severe bleeding have filed lawsuits against the drug’s manufacturers. In January 2015, a mass tort program was created in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. Over 250 lawsuits have been filed in Philadelphia, and over 400 lawsuits have been filed in the Xarelto MDL in the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Louisiana.  

NTSB presses for collision avoidance systems in vehicles.

The AP (6/8, Lowy) reports that the National Transportation Safety Board said in a June 8 report that equipment that automatically brake or warn drivers to avoid rear-end collisions should come standard in all new cars and commercial trucks. More than 80 percent of collisions could be averted or alleviated if manufacturers adopt such equipment. Similar recommendations were made “a dozen times over the past 20 years,” according to the article, but progress in their adoption has been “very limited.” As a first step, the NTSB wants automakers to make “a warning system standard, and then add automatic emergency braking after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration completes standards for them,” the article reports. “You don’t pay extra for your seatbelt,” NTSB Chairman Christopher Hart said in a statement. “And you shouldn’t have to pay extra for technology that can help prevent a collision.” The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers however wants to keep the collision avoidance systems optional. 

Takata Identifies at Least 400,000 Faulty Airbag Replacement Parts

Here is a link to a very scary and concerning article in Automotive News about Takata identifying at least 400,00 faulty airbag replacement parts that are replacing the recalled faulty parts:

http://www.autonews.com/article/20150604/OEM11/150609922/1509

TAKATA AIRBAG REPLACEMENTS

Uncertainty Looms Large About Safety of Takata Airbag Replacements
In November of last year, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration called for recalls involving certain vehicles manufactured with Takata airbags. It was alleged that the airbags are unsafe because they explode with excessive force, causing hot metal shrapnel to fly within the passenger compartment of the vehicle. Two weeks ago, Takata expanded its recall to cover nearly 34 million vehicles, including those manufactured by BMW, Honda, Ford, Mitsubishi and Chrysler. It is not expected that the recall and replacement will be completed for several years, leaving owners of affected vehicles with the unenviable choice of driving a vehicle with a known safety defect or not driving the vehicle at all.
Now, many questions are being raised over the safety of the airbag replacements. Takata and industry professionals have both stated that the fix for the recalled airbags is to replace them with “replacement” airbags. Takata’s replacement airbags, as described to a panel of the House of Representatives yesterday, consists of a different design of the airbag (altering the shape of the propellant wafer), but does not involve replacing the composition of the propellant itself, ammonium nitrate. But, what assurances are there that Takata’s “fix” will be safe?
Reuters reports that industry officials involved in the recall have said that it could take months to determine why Takata’s airbag inflators explode too forcefully. Since some airbags have already been replaced, and many will be replaced in the interim, it stands to reason that there is no certainty that the replacement airbags will fix the safety problem. According to industry officials, the replacement airbag inflators may eventually need to be replaced if the root cause of the problem has not been addressed when the core problem has been discovered. In other words, if it is later determined that the defect is caused because of the use of ammonium nitrate, the replacements, too, will be defective and unsafe.
Even government officials playing a role in the safety recall do not espouse the belief that the replacement product will fix the problem, to any certainty. In fact, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx is quoted as saying, “We have a lot of work to do, especially with regard to why this happened in the first place.” NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind also remarked that while replacement airbag inflators “are safer. The concern is, are they safe over the long term? That has yet to be determined.”
Certainly not a ringing endorsement.

Takata Corp, NHTSA agree to recall 33.8 million airbags in largest recall in US history.

The AP (6/1, Gordon) reports Takata Corp. has declared 33.8 million air bags defective in an agreement with NHTSA regulators. It’s the biggest auto-safety recall in US history. The AP adds that a top Takata Corp executive says the company plans to “replace the chemical in its air bags that has been linked to a defect responsible for at least six deaths and more than 100 injuries.”

        Bloomberg News (6/1, Plungis, 3.81M) reports about 50% of the replacement air-bag kits that Takata Corp. sent to automakers in May “have inflators made by competitors, including some with a different chemical than the one linked to explosions that have killed six people.” BN adds that the portion is expected to reach 70% by the end of the 2015, according to a Monday statement by Takata.

        The AP (6/1) reports although the NHTSA and the auto industry are “still trying to determine exactly what is causing Takata’s inflators to explode,” the agency said last week it “decided the recall action needed to be taken immediately to protect the public.” The AP says Takata’s agreement with NHTSA adds over 18 million air bags to existing recalls. The story says NHTSA “sparred with Takata for the past year over the size of the recalls and the cause of the problem.”

        CBS News (6/1, 8.2M) reports although the NHTSA and the auto industry are still trying to determine exactly what is causing Takata’s inflators to explode and the agency said last week it “decided the recall action needed to be taken immediately to protect the public.” 

GM announces that 330,000 heavy-duty GM pickup trucks now part of air bag recall.

The Detroit Free Press (5/31, Gardner, 957K) reports General Motors said “330,000 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra heavy duty pickup trucks are part of the largest ever recall of vehicles equipped with Takata air bags.” The affected trucks, according to information released on Friday by the NHTSA are from the 2007 and 2008 model years. The story says in addition, NHTSA said “Subaru will add about 60,000 vehicles to a previous recall along the Gulf Coast for passenger air bag inflators,” bringing the total number of Subarus recalled to around 81,000.