Personal InjuryThe Buckle Unlatching Cover-Up and Deceit of the U.S. Government
During their representation of buckle unlatching victims and their families, BISNAR & CHASE has gathered hundreds of thousands of documents and taken scores of depositions of industry personnel which has revealed that Ford and GM were well aware that false latching and inertial unlatching were leading to hundreds if not thousands of deaths and serious injuries which the auto industry has been suppressing from the public for years.
BISNAR & CHASE discovered that Ford and TRW VSSI misrepresented the actual numbers of buckle unlatching claims they were aware of to the U.S. Government in their written responses to the 1992 NHTSA rulemaking petition. Specifically, Ford represented to NHTSA that it knew of only 56 responsive claims or incidents involving such unlatching. In truth, however, at that time Ford had 1,406 such claims files in its possession in its Office of General Counsel the contents of which it refused to disclose, citing attorney client privilege. Additional records obtained in litigation by BISNAR & CHASE revealed that Ford had found an additional 3,100 claims of inadvertent unlatching made through its dealers and customer service departments.
None of these 4,506 claims, incidents, accidents and lawsuits were reported to NHTSA. In a recent buckle unlatching trial against Ford, Ford's senior management personnel finally admitted under oath that they had under reported the actual number of claims of known buckle unlatching in 1992 to NHTSA in response to the rulemaking petition.
GM's conduct appears to have been even more egregious. In its response to the 1992 NHTSA rulemaking petition, GM enclosed test research which claimed that actual laboratory testing it commissioned had proven that inertial unlatching was a practical impossibility. NHTSA relied heavily on these representations by GM in denying the rulemaking petition. For years, attorneys handling unlatching cases have been trying unsuccessfully to secure allegedly privileged secret documents and testimony from the very laboratory used by GM to determine the truthfulness of the laboratory's testing and conclusions relied upon by the auto industry. In every instance, GM successfully argued that such research was "privileged" and not subject to disclosure.
Recently, however, after years of litigation, motions and appeals, BISNAR & CHASE in conjunction with several other law firms throughout the nation, have been given the green light by court order to demand production by the test laboratory of these test documents and to take the depositions of these key laboratory test personnel. Initial information produced pursuant to the Court's order has so far reveal that the test laboratory likely falsified and suppressed its initial research which did in fact reveal that the forces necessary to produce inertial unlatching was possible in real world accidents.
As a result of these disclosures, BISNAR & CHASE expects that its future buckle unlatching clients may be able to expect larger settlements and higher punitive damages awards at trial on their claims.
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