Motoring
Congress begin hearing on 13 auto related death blamed on GM
WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Congress will try to establish who is to blame for at least 13 auto-related deaths over the past decade, as public hearings are launched on General Motors Co’s slow response to defective ignition switches in cars.
Despite tougher laws being enacted in 2000 and 2010 to encourage automakers and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to aggressively root out safety concerns, it took GM more than a decade to acknowledge publicly that it had a potentially fatal problem.
Documents that GM and NHTSA turned over to the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee have provided new insights into GM’s practices.
They include decisions to install ignition switches in Chevrolet Cobalts, Saturn Ions and other models that did not meet all of the company’s own specifications.
Even worse, some in Congress are beginning to wonder whether more people died in cars outfitted with faulty switches, beyond the 13 GM identified, as they review documents pointing to a redesigned replacement part that also could be substandard.
The committee, as well as a Senate panel on Wednesday, is expected to begin demanding answers from GM on whether decisions like that directly contributed to crashes.
So far, GM has recalled 2.6 million cars to replace ignition switches that could unexpectedly stall out engines, prevent airbags from deploying and make power brakes and power steering inoperable.
“Lives are at stake, and we will follow the facts where they take us as we work to pinpoint where the system failed,” House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, a Michigan Republican, said on Sunday.
On the receiving end of questions by Upton and other members of the panel’s Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee will be GM Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra, who has repeatedly apologized for her company’s performance.
Barra, who became CEO in January, says in prepared testimony released by the committee that she “cannot tell you why it took years for a safety defect to be announced.”
Barra promised to get to the root of the problem.
The congressional committee might not want to patiently wait, however, and it could call lower-level GM employees to testify at later hearings or even former CEOs.
NHTSA Acting Administrator David Friedman also will be on the hot seat on Tuesday, as many lawmakers are expected to ask why the regulatory agency was not more aggressive in identifying the problem and forcing GM to act.
For Barra and GM the stakes are high.
The Detroit automaker survived a 2009 bankruptcy reorganization and a subsequent government takeover. The U.S. Treasury exited the last of its taxpayer stake in the company last fall.
With the U.S. economy climbing out of a deep economic recession and new success with a product line that included highly profitable trucks, GM started the year optimistic.
Instead, the recalls and revelations that GM hid the problem for years, even after being confronted by devastated families who lost relatives in car crashes, have taken the sheen off of
GM.
Now, the company and some of its employees are hung up in House and Senate investigations, a U.S. Justice Department criminal probe and several lawsuits. Meanwhile, its legal costs are escalating and nobody is sure what further steps GM might have to take to protect consumers from vehicles it sold as long as a decade ago.
All of this could have an impact on GM’s bottom line in coming years.
Past congressional investigations of Toyota Motor Corp in 2010 and Ford Motor Co and Firestone tire-maker 10 years earlier have produced riveting testimony from victims and the GM probe may be no different.
John Kimberly, a business consultant and a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, said Barra should learn from the mistakes other companies have made in the midst of high-profile congressional probes.
He pointed to BP, which was criticized for minimizing the damage caused by its massive, 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico during testimony to Congress.
Kimberley added that it would be a “huge mistake” for Barra to hide behind legal protections by drawing a distinction between GM pre- and post-bankruptcy and blame the handling of the recall on the former.
Congressional investigations often boil down to a version of one central question – a question made famous by former Republican Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee.
“What did the president know and when did he know it,” Baker said of then-President Richard Nixon during a defining moment in the Watergate hearings of 1973-74.
That is the question congressional investigators are asking of GM and NHTSA officials. It may take months to find the answer.
– REUTERS
The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has ended contracts with taxi rank and terminal operators due to their failure to meet engagement terms and conditions.
Mr. Ubokutom Nyah, the Mandate Secretary of the Transportation Secretariat, FCTA, made this announcement during a meeting with managers of these terminals and taxi ranks in Abuja.
Nyah clarified that due to the operators’ failure to fulfill their engagement terms, the FCTA had to terminate their contracts.
He instructed them to transfer control of the ranks to the Administration within three months, starting from Nov. 21.
He lamented the presence of unauthorized motor parks in the city and assured the readiness of the Administration to establish proper taxi ranks and terminals in the capital.
He revealed that personally visiting the city’s taxi ranks, terminals, and unauthorized motor parks gave him direct insight into the poor condition of these facilities.
He emphasized that as the federal capital city, Abuja deserves better, highlighting that the poor condition of these facilities attracts various criminal elements.
He said “We must rid Abuja of all these. I have gone round the taxi ranks, and of all the places I visited, not one is worthy to be called even a village motor park.”
The Mandate Secretary stressed that the intention wasn’t punitive; rather, it aimed to revamp the sector, introduce new engagement terms, and modernize taxi ranks and terminals in the federal capital.
He also highlighted the plan to increase the number of terminals and ranks where necessary, which would positively impact the administration’s revenue.
He emphasized that this measure was part of a broader effort to eliminate illegal motor parks in Abuja and curb the associated criminal activities.
In response, Mr. Adebisi Lawal, the Operator of Jahi Taxi Rank, praised the administration’s initiative to modernize the taxi ranks and terminals.
Lawal urged the administration to prioritize current operators’ involvement in the selection of new developers for the modernization of the taxi ranks and terminals.
It was a show of power at the Ojota area of Lagos on Monday as soldiers pummeled an officer of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, (LASTMA).
Eyewitness accounts claim that the ugly scene played out around 8am, and saw about eight soldiers pounce on the yet to identified LASTMA official, while his colleagues took to their heels.
The video of the melodrama has gone viral, where the LASTMA official was appealing to the soldiers, who appeared bent on ‘teaching him a lesson’.
This onslaught comes on the back of a reported assault of a soldier at the same location by LASTMA officials last week.
It would appear that what played out today was the army asserting its authority and defending their khaki as the armed soldiers carried out what looked like a revenge mission.
Eyewitnesses further averred that the victim was rushed to a nearby hospital, after the soldiers left the scene.
It was gathered that the authorities at LASTMA has reported the incident to the military authorities who are said to be looking into the matter.
Meanwhile many members of the public are rejoicing that the soldiers have taught the crude LASTMA official that power is stronger than power, for all their atrocities against motorists on Lagos roads.
The impact of the removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol, has seen the pump prices of the product skyrocket with a corresponding increase in the cost commercial transportation in Nigeria.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), intra-city bus transportation fares across Nigerian cities, measured between May and June 2023, increased from N649.59 to N1,285.41 in June 2023.
This translates to 98 percent growth or N635.82 within the month in view.
The NBS made the data available in its Transport Fare Watch report for June 2023.
In the report, the NBS also shared the breakdown of bus journeys within the cities per drop for constant routes; bus journey intercity (state route); charges per person, amongst others.
On a year-on-year basis, the report has it that bus fares rose by 120.63 percent from N582.61 paid by commuters in June 2022.
The average fare paid by commuters for bus journey intercity per drop rose to N5,686.49 in June 2023 compared to N4,002.16 in May 2023 indicating an increase of 42.09 percent, month-on-month.
The report read, “The average fare paid by commuters for bus journeys within the city per drop increased by 97.88 per cent from N649.59 in May 2023 to N1,285.41 in June 2023.
On a year-on-year basis, it rose by 120.63 per cent from N582.61 in June 2022.
“In another category, the average fare paid by commuters for bus journey intercity per drop rose to N5,686.49 in June 2023, indicating an increase of 42.09 on a month-on-month basis compared to N4,002.16 in May 2023.
“On a year-on-year basis, the fare rose by 55.25 per cent from N3,662.87 in June 2022.”
Biztellers reported that the twin forces of forex pressure and increasing price of Brent in the global market would likely see the pump prices of petrol, increased again in no distant time in Nigeria.
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