Tag Archives: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

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New Distracted Driving Data Shows Emergency Responders At High Risk

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April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month, and the National Security Council (NSC) released new data this week that explores added transportation risks when emergency responders are en route to provide aid. It is clear that the mere presence of emergency personnel on the road can cause distractions for drivers and bystanders. To date, 16 emergency responders have been struck and killed by vehicles this year in the United States.

According to a survey released jointly by the NSC and the Emergency Responder Safety Institute (ERSI), 16 percent of respondents said they either have struck or nearly struck a first responder or emergency vehicle stopped on or near the road. Yet still, 89 percent of drivers say they believe distracted motorists are a major source of risk to first responders.

Key findings included:

  • 71% of drivers take photos and text while driving by emergency responders on the side of the road (this drops to 24% under normal driving conditions)
  • 60% take time to post to social media and 66% email about the situation
  • 80% admit to “rubbernecking” – that irritating, but also risky, practice of slowing down all traffic to get a better look
  • 49% say that possibly being struck by a vehicle is “just part of the risk” of being a first responder

As part of its #justdrive campaign, NSC has developed a free Safe Driving Kit to help employers keep their workers safe and is hosting a webinar on April 23, titled “You’re Not As Safe As You Think You Are,” to educate employers on the real risks of distracted driving and what safety-forward companies are doing to combat them.

“The cruel irony is, we are putting the people who are trying to improve safety in very unsafe situations,” said Nick Smith, interim president and CEO of the NSC. “Our emergency responders deserve the highest levels of protection as they grapple with situations that are not only tactically difficult but also emotionally taxing. Save your communications for off the road; disconnect and just drive.”

Already on the NTSB’s List

Earlier this year, Risk Management Monitor reported on the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) Most Wanted List of transportation safety improvements for 2019-2020, and “Eliminating Distractions” for all vehicle drivers is at its top.

In 2016, more than 3,100 fatal crashes on U.S. highways were attributed to driving-while-distracted. These crashes involved 3,210 distracted drivers, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), because some of them involved more than one distracted driver. Furthermore, the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute concluded that commercial drivers are at extremely high risk of a crash when texting—23 times greater than when otherwise engaged.

The NTSB states:

Contributing to the problem is the widespread belief by many drivers that they can multitask and still operate a vehicle safely. But multitasking is a myth; humans can only focus cognitive attention on one task at a time. That’s why executing any task other than driving is dangerous and risks a crash.

Personal electronic devices (PEDs), such as cell phones, are one of the greatest contributors to driver distraction and the NTSB recommends banding all PED use on U.S. roadways. The District of Columbia and 37 states restrict the use of cell phones by novice drivers, and 47 states, DC, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the US Virgin Islands ban text messaging for all drivers.

 

State Farm Enters the Toyota Fiasco

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The hits just keep on coming for Toyota.

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On the heels of a $16 million government fine and the potential for billions of dollars in loses after pending litigation shakes out, State Farm has asked Toyota to pay them back for any claims related to the unintended acceleration fiasco. Other insurers, including Allstate, are expected to follow suit and Mark Bunim, an attorney with the mediation firm Closed Case, says these subrogation demands could eventually end up costing Toyota up to $30 million. But the ultimate determination will take some time.

“Someone has to go through each and every auto claim, and then try to make a determination if it involved unwarranted acceleration,” Bunim says. “It could take months.”

This is not the first time State Farm has been at the forefront of action regarding Toyota. Back in 2007, State Farm warned the automaker and the NHTSA about an increase in unintended acceleration reports involving Toyota vehicles. While this warning adds further fuel to the argument that both Toyota and regulators were asleep at the switch, Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood pointed out on his blog that the NHTSA was looking into the problem as early as 2003.

The point is that our safety officials have been looking at this issue from all angles for quite some time.

So the idea that NHTSA is in the business of ignoring information–valuable or otherwise–from automobile insurers, safety organizations, or consumers is just plain wrong.

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Of course, this still doesn’t answer why it took them six years to act. Perhaps they were just being diligent.

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After Record Fine, Toyota Extends Car Discounts. But Will It Continue to Drive Sales?

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toyota recalls

For risk managers and others looking at the Toyota recalls as an ongoing lesson in corporate crisis response, seeing the daily headlines about the automaker’s woes is — both figuratively and literally — like watching a car crash.

Sure, in some ways, Toyota has handled the situation adequately, and its rebounding stock price and recent sales suggest that the immediate damage could have been worse. Then again, the company dragged its feet in addressing safety concerns publicly, and all the fines, recalls, class-action lawsuits, Congressional hearings and public scorn suggest that the long-term reputational damage could very well be lasting. This isn’t something that consumers will ever forget.

Especially not now.

Because on Monday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration hit Toyota with a record $16.4 million fine, which is more than an order of magnitude larger than the watchdog’s previous highest penalty, a $1 million slap on the wrist to GM for faulty windshield wipers. The $16.4 million figure is also the largest allowed under civil law, according to NHTSA.

Said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood:

“We now have proof that Toyota failed to live up to its legal obligations,” said Secretary LaHood. “Worse yet, they knowingly hid a dangerous defect for months from U.S. officials and did not take action to protect millions of drivers and their families. For those reasons, we are seeking the maximum penalty possible under current laws.”

On Forbes.com, Ned Douthat advises Toyota to just pay the fine rather than try to fight the regulator’s decision.

Now, Toyota is faced with the choice of contesting the fine in court or simply paying the fine in order to get the episode behind in.  In comparison to the potentially lengthy and expensive legal battle, the nominal $16.4 million fine may be an attractive option.  However, in paying the fine the prestige of the Toyota brand may be forever damaged, as they would be admitting fault in hiding a very serious safety issue in their vehicles and thus endangering millions of drivers.  The number of incidences of stuck accelerators is still relatively small, but the recalls have affected some 8.5 million vehicles.  Furthermore, if Toyota admits fault and accepts this fine, it may open the litigation flood gates to hundreds of class action and personal injury lawsuits related to the stuck accelerator issue.

Amanda Bronstod of Law.com delves deeper into the idea that accepting the fine as handed down will be troublesome for Toyota, as it factually “validates the legitimacy of our allegations that Toyota has been misleading the federal government and consumers.”

With that damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t decision looming, Toyota also announced on Tuesday that it would extend its sales discount program. The program was successful in March and finally gave the company some positive headlines, but at least one industry expert seems skeptical that even this price-cutting measure will continue to push vehicles under the once-impeccable-but-now-tainted Toyota banner.

Last month’s incentive program helped Toyota “scoop up bargain hunters and loyalists” to achieve a 41% gain in sales over March 2009, said James Bell, an analyst with auto information company Kelley Blue Book.

But the increase was not as robust as it might seem, as results were tempered by the low sales in the same month a year earlier, he said.

“The question now is how many of those bargain hunters and loyalists are left. You have a finite number of people in the auto market at any one time,” Bell said.

Historically, Toyota has been among the stingiest automakers when offering incentives, helped by its historically high resale values and a reputation for building reliable cars, he said.

Last week at the International Auto Show, a Toyota rep spoke on the situation, specifically noting his thoughts that “people don’t buy a car they don’t trust just because you give them a good price.”

We’ll see, I guess.

For more on the risk management angle of the Toyota troubles, check out our past coverage. Morgan also covered “Toyota’s Total Recall” in the April issue of Risk Management.

Toyota’s Woes Continue

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Another week and the fallout continues to spread from Toyota’s recall controversy.

In Minnesota, a man imprisoned for vehicular homicide in a fatal Toyota crash sought a new trial, claiming that, in light of the unintended acceleration recalls, he was wrongly convicted for a mechanical malfunction that wasn’t his fault. A prisoner in Portland, Oregon has made similar claims in what is sure to be new trend in courts around the country.

Meanwhile, lawyers have begun to jockey for position in what is assumed to be a lucrative, and perhaps historic, class action lawsuit for all involved (J.P. Morgan recently put the total recall price tag for Toyota at $5.5 billion), internal company documents revealed that Toyota was aware of the unintended acceleration problem in 2002, when Camry owners began to complain about the issue.

The technical service bulletin went to every U.S. Toyota dealership in late August 2002 after some customers reported their vehicles were speeding up unexpectedly.

“Some 2002 model year Camry vehicles may exhibit a surging during light throttle input at speeds between 38-42 mph,” the bulletin states. “The Engine Control Module (ECM) calibration has been revised to correct this condition.”

Since the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) was apparently aware of the issue as well, some critics, including Clarence Ditlow, the head of the nonprofit Center for Auto Safety, have suggested that both Toyota and the NHTSA are guilty of a coverup.

“The government is really hiding this information from the consumer,” Ditlow told CNN. “They’re in a conspiracy with the auto industry to keep these out of the public’s sight.”

Some analysts have questioned the seriousness of this document, however. Matt Hardigree of the automotive blog Jalopnik wrote that the CNN article may be misleading.

[The document] just shows there was a problem with electronics on one year of the Camry, which Toyota identified and repaired. The engine affected, the 1MZ-FE, isn’t even offered in the Camry anymore. The change to a new platform and new engine lineup would have drastically changed the ECM between the sixth-gen Camry and the current seventh-generation 2007-2010 Camry. Claiming the 2002 TSB [technical service bulletin] is related to Toyota’s current sudden unintended acceleration problems is sort of like claiming a screen recall on an iPhone is related to a recall on a first-generation iPod click-wheel.

While lawyers to try to figure what what Toyota knew and when, the recall problems continue to plague the automaker’s business and have been blamed for plant shutdowns in France and the UK. In February, Toyota’s sales in the European Union fell 20% as compared to the same time last year, despite the fact that overall auto sales in the EU were up 3%.

Finally (for now), Toyota was also forced to respond to owner complaints that recalled cars were still experiencing acceleration problems after they had been repaired by dealers. The company pledged to replace the pedals free of charge at the owner’s request. The operative phrase being “at the owner’s request”  as an internal memo cautioned dealers “not to solicit pedal replacement.”

As the crisis at Toyota rages on, stay tuned to the Monitor for the latest news and updates.