Autoblog

Toyota whistleblower joined by civil suit over father's death

Dan Roth — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 12:33:00 EST

Filed under: Government/Legal, Plants/Manufacturing, Toyota

A faulty seatbelt that traps an occupant in a vehicle and leads to his death is a horrible tragedy. If the defect were given a pass at the manufacturing plant, it goes beyond tragic to criminal. Toyota is now facing two lawsuits in California, both centered around manufacturing defects that may have been ignored at its joint-venture New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. plant.

We reported earlier on the first lawsuit filed by Katy Cameron, a NUMMI worker who alleges that vehicles with serious problems were passed out the door, even though the NUMMI plant purportedly subscribes to the "Toyota way" of manufacturing. Instead of empowering workers to spot and correct defects, even stop the assembly line to make things right, management at the NUMMI plant allegedly discouraged Cameron by demoting her.

A second lawsuit has also been filed by the Singh family, who are blaming the seatbelt latch in their 2002 Corolla for the death of Raminder Singh. The Singhs were involved in an accident that led to an engine fire, and while 19-year-old Gurinder Singh was able to exit the vehicle, his father remained trapped by his seatbelt despite Gurinder's efforts to unlatch it.

A spokesman for Toyota has been quoted as saying, "as heart-rending and tragic as this collision was, Toyota has an altogether different view of the facts." The facts will hopefully come to light during this civil trial, which heard opening statements on Tuesday.

Thanks for the tip, Jon!

[Source: Money/CNN]

Toyota whistleblower joined by civil suit over father's death originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 29 Nov 2007 12:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

As if poisoned pet food wasn't enough, Chinese tires failing now

Sam Abuelsamid — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 19:34:00 EST

Filed under: China, Plants/Manufacturing, Recalls, Safety

In recent years, products made in China have gained more renown for being cheap than for the quality control behind them. Up until now, inexpensive sneakers that fall apart after a few weeks or DVD players that work erratically have been more of an annoyance and an economic threat as opposed to a physical one. Recent headlines would suggest that might be changing, however. The contaminated pet food that killed dozens of cats not long ago and the video of a Chinese car collapsing in on itself during a European crash test bring the issue of potentially hazardous Chinese imports to a whole new level.

Foreign Tire Sales, Inc. of Union, NJ is suing China's Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co. over a series of catastrophic failures of tires they manufactured that resulted in a fatal car crash in Pennsylvania. Hangzhou has been manufacturing tires sold by FTS and other distributors that left out an extra layer of rubber between the steel belts, causing them to overheat and have tread separation similar to the Firestone tires that failed on Ford Explorers several years ago. The tires may need to be recalled and FTS doesn't have the financial resources to deal with something like that, so it's suing the Chinese company to cover the expenses since they built the tires in a way that differed from what was specified. The Wall Street Journal's report on the matter contains additional details, and is well worth a read.

Thanks to Mike for the tip.

[Source: Wall Street Journal]

As if poisoned pet food wasn't enough, Chinese tires failing now originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 25 Jun 2007 19:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments