At least 17 workers were killed by explosions in an automotive components factory in southern China on New Year’s eve — the latest in a series of deadly industrial accidents in the world’s workshop.
State media reported that another 20 people were injured after three blasts ripped apart a machinery factory in Foshan, a manufacturing hub in Guangdong province, at 9.30am.
Executives at Fuwa Engineering, which makes truck components, could not be reached immediately for comment.
Car parts factory explosion kills 69 in August, 2014
[the death toll later increased to 75, then 146]
China’s president Xi Jinping has demanded an investigation into a factory explosion that killed at least 69 people and injured up to 187 in the country’s worst industrial accident in more than a year.The blast ripped through a car parts factory in eastern China on Saturday, apparently when a flame was lit in a dust filled room in the plant, located in an industrial zone in the city of Kunshan, about 1,000km south of Beijing...
State television news showed footage of plumes of thick, black smoke rising from the plant, and news websites posted pictures of the dead or injured, many with horrific burns.
Many of the injured were shown lying on wooden pallets, waiting to be stretchered on to trucks, public buses and ambulances.
Summary of findings (from abstract): The use of a tin finish in the APPS is a cause for concern. Tin finishes are known to produce metal whiskers that are conductive and capable of creating unintended current leakage paths. In the analysis, a significant number of tin whiskers were found.
"SRS’s report noted that the most remarkable discovery of the NHTSA-NASA Toyota Unintended Acceleration investigation was the presence of tin whiskers on every potentiometer-type accelerator pedal they examined. Tin whiskers are crystalline structures, many times thinner than a human hair, which form on the tin solder used on printed circuit boards. They are mighty inconvenient for electronics manufacturers, having been known to produce all kinds of varied and unpredictable electronic malfunction such as shutting down nuclear reactors, satellites and medical devices – to name a few examples.
They proved to be mighty inconvenient to NHTSA-NESC team, too. Not only did they discover the presence of tin whiskers on every potentiometer pedal examined, the researchers actually found them on a pedal tied to a vehicle that had experienced multiple instances of UA. With one promising root cause right there on the lab bench, most scientists who practice their vocation with rigor might have expanded their sample beyond several pedals to determine incidence in the field. They might have looked for tin whiskers in the throttle bodies or ECMs – other components of the engine system that could lead to a throttle malfunction. Instead, NHTSA turned to Exponent, the science-for-hire firm Toyota’s legal team retained to defend the company in class action lawsuits.
Neither agency disclosed this conflict-of-interest. NHTSA claimed that it performed the warranty analysis.
The Whitfields, unpacked the data supporting the alleged Trouble-Not-Found conclusions and they were particularly struck by this:
“It is also extraordinary that the NASA-NESC team, as safety experts, would look upon secret, warranty data reported by a manufacturer’s litigation experts as evidence of the lack of corroboration of an electronics cause of unintended acceleration. This is especially true because the compromised, safety-critical, electronic circuitry was discovered in an accelerator pedal sensor assembly examined in a NASA laboratory... Only NASA’s and NHTSA’s analysis of the complaint data in relation to the secret, warranty data is cited to support the lack of relevance of these findings to public health and safety... It is difficult to imagine NASA itself accepting assurances from a manufacturer of its own spacecraft that similar problems in important safety systems should be regarded as inconsequential. Yet it is the NASA-NESC report on which NHTSA relied to close its investigation,” the Whitfields wrote in their report."
"The role tin whiskers may have played in Toyota's unintended acceleration complaints have been a hot button issue nationally. Some have argued that the small formations that can grow on electroplated tin may have occurred in a sensor in the vehicle's acceleration system and caused a short circuit that led to the acceleration.Attorneys for Alberto's estate said there was such a formation in an acceleration sensor in Alberto's 2005 Toyota Camry. The sensor was destroyed when it was being evaluated by a potential witness for Toyota. Toyota's attorneys claim the sensor was accidentally destroyed when an iPad was dropped on it during the evaluation.Alberto's car careened down West Copeman Boulevard in Flint April 19, 2008, at 80 mph, weaving in and out of traffic before hitting a tree, sending her car airborne. The car eventually smashed into another tree, hitting it 8 feet off the ground, killing her instantly."
WASHINGTON — A U.S. senator has raised concerns about a government investigation of sudden unintended acceleration problems in Toyota vehicles, saying the probe might have erroneously ruled out the company's electronic throttle control system as a cause.Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) said whistle-blowers recently have provided his office with information suggesting that the investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, with the help of NASA engineers, "may have been too narrow."In a letter sent Thursday to NHTSA Administrator David Strickland, Grassley asked for detailed information about the investigation and whether vehicles were tested for the presence of an electronic phenomenon known as "tin whiskers" that could have been the cause of unintended acceleration."This is a serious issue," Grassley wrote. He noted that NASA engineers said just because they did not find proof that Toyota Motor Corp.'s electronic throttle control system caused the reports of unintended acceleration "does not mean it could not occur."
"There is no problem with the electronic throttle control systems in Toyota vehicles — and all the scientific evidence confirms it," the company said in a statement.I wonder if in retrospect one could understand this statement as wire fraud. Obviously, I'm not a prosecutor, but I later learned that Toyota subsequently ceased making the claim that tin whiskers are not assocated with sudden acceleration. Halloooo SD NY, you have any prosecutors over there who can say if it was wire fraud?
BEIJING, DEc 10– The former deputy head of China’s top planning agency was jailed for life Wednesday over a bribery scandal that exposed graft at the highest levels of China’s government, and ensnared several companies — including Toyota Motor Corp....According to court documents, Liu used his son as a conduit to funnel the money to himself from four Chinese companies, including Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., which has a joint-venture with Toyota.
The documents describe Liu using his power over economic affairs in exchange for a raft of quid pro quos, including a 30 percent share in a Beijing auto dealership that was given to his son and later sold for profit.
Mr Liu’s trial provided a glimpse into how officials often use family members to funnel corrupt payments — and can sometimes expose unwitting [?] multinationals to reputational risks in the process.
As a senior planning official, Mr Liu was in a position to approve or reject investments by Toyota’s highly successful joint venture with state-owned Guangzhou Automobile Group (GAC Group) in southern Guangdong province.
According to court documents, in 2005 a former GAC Group general manager suggested that Mr Liu’s son [Liu Decheng] open a Beijing dealership for the joint venture.
When Mr Liu said that his son had neither the capital nor experience to do so, the Chinese executive arranged for him to take a 30 per cent stake in a new dealership that was established with Rmb12m in registered capital. According to the court, the arrangement was approved by GAC Group’s current chairman, Zhang Fangyou.
At the time, China was on the cusp of the largest automotive boom in industrial history and competition for lucrative dealerships was intense. Mr Liu’s son never worked at the dealership and did not collect any salary from it, but in 2007 was able to sell his stake for Rmb10m [$1.6 million].
Mr Zhang, who has not been charged with any wrongdoing, was not immediately available for comment on Wednesday. The former GAC Group general manager was appointed head of another state-owned enterprise in 2008 and retired last year. Prosecutors did not present any evidence that Toyota was aware of the arrangement. The Japanese company declined to comment.
"We are starting with a world that is uneven in the distribution of safety," says Adrian Lund, the president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, an insurance-funded group that crash tests U.S. cars....Despite decades of talk, at the United Nations and elsewhere, little progress has been made getting governments to harmonize safety standards.
In Europe and Japan, cars are rigorously tested before they go on sale. In the U.S., automakers self-certify and cars are tested only after they go on sale. In Mexico and India, cars don't have to meet any government safety standards at all.
Likewise, countries differ on how to treat a problem. The U.S. requires automakers to report a safety defect within five days of its discovery, even if the cause hasn't been determined. Other countries, like Colombia, want automakers to have a fix in place before they report a recall.
John Krafcik, the president of auto buying site TrueCar.com and Hyundai's former U.S. chief, says there's also discrepancy in what's considered a safety defect.
The lack of a cohesive system contributes to huge disparities. In 2013, there were 714 vehicle recalls issued in the U.S., where 28 million cars, trucks and motorcycles were called back due to safety issues. That outpaced the rest of the world. In Europe, which has around the same number of cars on the road as the U.S., there were 110 recalls. In Japan there were 303. China had 130.
Phil Berrigan was a hero in a time when we cannot find heroes among the politicians in Washington, much less the timorous press.The real heroes are not on national television or in the headlines. They are the nurses, the doctors, the teachers, the social workers, the janitors, the hospital orderlies, the construction workers, the people who keep the society going, who help people in need. They are the advocates for the homeless, the students asking a living wage for the campus janitors, the environmental activists trying to protect the trees, the air, the water. And they are the protesters against war, the apostles of peace in a world going mad with violence....
Altogether, Phil Berrigan served more than ten years in various prisons for his passionate insistence that war was a cruel response to the problems people faced in this country and around the globe.
Thomas Drake, a former senior executive at the NSA, had concerns about massive waste, mismanagement, illegality, and a willingness to compromise the privacy of U.S. citizens.44 He reported his concerns to as many people within the IC as possible, including his immediate supervisors, the NSA’s inspector general, the DOD IG, and Congressional intelligence committees.45 When all these routes produced no results, he went to a Baltimore Sun reporter with information that was not even classified.46
Over the past few years there has been a surge in whistleblower protections against workplace retaliation, affecting federal and corporate workers alike. Finding it more difficult to justify firing truth-tellers in the face of these buttressed rights, retaliatory managers are increasingly using a new method of retribution – referring whistleblowers for criminal investigations and prosecutions when they engage in protected whistleblowing. The end result is while whistleblowers are now safer from firing for exposing wrongdoing, they are increasingly the targets of criminal investigations, referrals to the Department of Justice, and even prosecutions. Adding insult to injury, the culpable bosses circumventing the nature of the law are never held accountable.- See more at: http://www.whistleblower.org/truthjailing#sthash.egL7G2RH.dpuf
Why is this happening?There are many reasons why agencies find criminal referrals more attractive than retaliatory job actions (demotion, suspension, etc). Just some include:
- Criminal investigations are cheaper and easier than retaliatory job actions. It takes an army of attorneys and witnesses – plus depositions, briefs and hearings – to fire an employee. All it takes for a criminal witch-hunt is a sole investigator willing to act as a bully.
- Criminal investigations are risk free to the agencies, whereas retaliatory job actions may be found to violate federal protected personnel practices (PPPs). If a bogus, unfounded criminal investigation turns up nothing – or refers a whistleblower who is ultimately vindicated – there is no consequence for managers who have committed reprisal. The investigation simply closes. Managers taking actions against truth-telling employees through retaliatory job actions can be found to have violated PPPs, at which point the manager would have to defend their actions during an administrative hearing.
- Criminal investigations can essentially be perpetual, serving as a never-ending nightmare for whistleblowers. When one investigation uncovers no wrongdoing and is closed (typically only after being open for an elongated period), another retaliatory investigation can be opened the next day for a stated discrete reason, when in actuality each action is in response to whistleblowing. An employee operating under a continual cloud of investigation can find it impossible to change positions if they wish to leave the agency.
Because of these reasons, the face of whistleblower retaliation is evolving from firings to criminal investigations and prosecutions. It's unjustifiable, and it shouldn't be allowed.
- Criminal investigations and prosecutions are far more effective at isolating the first whistleblower on a given issue – terrorizing coworkers into silence – compared to retaliatory job actions.
..."Car giant Toyota says it is “impossible” for a car’s cruise control to get stuck at high speed, despite a number of drivers in the UAE claiming a malfunction left them hurtling along the road.7DAYS has reported on at least three incidents where the drivers said they could not turn off the cruise control and the car’s brakes would not work, although the firm said that about a dozen such cases have been reported, mostly in the Northern Emirates.In the majority of them, the cars were either made by Toyota or its sister company Lexus.
Shuichi Hirata, general manager for the Middle East and Africa of Toyota’s overseas service division, said: “In the Middle East, we read many articles and information from the police about this, however there have been no cases in any other regions. Therefore, Toyota, the distributors and the police checked the vehicles.”
He added: “First of all we examined them physically to see if any problem had happened in the brake system or cruise control system.”
Hirata said they looked closely at the brake pads and discs in particular.
“If the brake is depressed firmly a mark will remain,” he said. “As a result, the driver’s behaviour can be imagined.”
The engineers also checked the onboard computer.
“The ICU records driving conditions, such as the acceleration or braking. We call it the event data recorder,” Hirata said. “We can read all the information and confirm if there is a problem.”
One hour into the [Takata Dec 3] hearing, Rep. Billy Long, R-Mo., leaned toward his microphone, stared at the witness from Takata and asked: "How many more people will die before you issue a national recall?"Moments later, Long threw a second rhetorical haymaker, offhandedly remarking that owning a vehicle with Takata airbags "is tantamount to driving down the highway with a shotgun aimed at you from behind the steering wheel."
Professor Nakano is a professor of political science at Sophia University (上智大学), who is one of the very few outspoken critics still standing up and critiquing the Abe government.. ..He explained with great honesty and clarity, why in his opinion, Japan is shifting dangerously to the right. The lecture resonated in Germany in a way it may resonate nowhere else.
"'I'm his lawyer,' Mordecai said. 'Let me see that.' He took the arrest warrant from [officer] Gasko and examined it as I was getting cuffed, hands behind my back, wrists pinched by cold steel. The cuffs were too tight, or at least tighter than they had to be, but I could bear it...
"Gasko sat in the rear [of the police car] with me...
"'What a waste of time,' Gasko said as he relaxed by placing a cowboy boot on a knee. 'We got a hundred and forty unsolved murders in this city, dope on every corner, drug dealers selling in middle schools, and we gotta waste time on you.'
'Are you tryng to interrogate me, Gasko?' I asked.
'No.'
'Good.' He hadn't bothered with the Miranda warning, and he didn't have to until he started asking questions.
Goon One was flying south on Fourteenth, no lights or sirens, and certainly no respect for traffic signals and pedestrians.
'Then let me go,' I said.
'If it's up to me, I would. But you really pissed some folks off. The prosecutor tells me he's under pressure to get you.'
'Pressure from who?' I asked. But I knew the answer. Drake & Sweeeney wouldn't waste time with the cops; they would rather talk legalspeak with the chief prosecutor.
'The victims,' Gasko said with heavy sarcasm. I agreed with his assessment; it was difficult to picture a bunch of wealthy lawyers as victims of a crime."
Airbags seem to be one of those black art car systems we accept without question.
Plaintiffs suing General Motors claiming the carmaker covered up evidence of a faulty ignition switch they blame for their daughter's death want GM's lawyers at King & Spalding to hand over confidential internal notes and memos about the case....Cooper, the plaintiffs' lawyer, said he knows his request is unusual, and that he is asking for information that he normally would not request. But he believes his demand is justified by what he views as a decade-long corporate cover-up of a deadly defect, and that correcting the faulty ignition switch earlier could have saved Brooke Melton's life. He's basing his subpoena on the "crime fraud exception" to attorney-client privilege and work product protection....In making his case, Cooper is taking aim at what has become known as "the Valukas Report," a 325-page document produced by attorney Anton Valukas of Jenner & Block in Chicago, hired by GM to investigate the handling of the ignition switch defect. Cooper isn't buying Valukas' conclusion that the company's leadership did not participate in a cover-up, calling it a "whitewash."...Cooper said the Valukas report "ostensibly pulls no punches," he added, "what the report does not do, however, is find any evidence of bad faith, collusion, callousness, or malice in anything GM did or did not do."Daily Report Online article
