Articles by Jeff Plungis

Citing Lives Saved, Regulators Prepare to Mandate Talking Car Technology

The U.S. Transportation Department moved forward on writing rules that may mandate automakers’ use of talking-car technology, saying more than a thousand lives a year might be saved on the nation’s roadways. Two of the most promising crash-avoidance technologies warning …

Some Trucking Firms Want Congress to Ease Safety Limit on Truckers’ Hours

The 70-hour cap on a U.S. trucker’s workweek has a chance of being eased by Congress, undoing the result of a 15-year effort to reduce highway fatalities caused by drowsy long-haul drivers. The main federal regulation requiring truckers to take …

Crash-Avoiding Automatic Brakes Becoming Standard Equipment: IIHS

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) and Daimler AG are among automakers that are improving and speeding up their use of automatic brakes as part of efforts to reduce front-end crashes, a U.S. safety group said. The BMW 5-Series and Daimler’s …

GM Now Links 47 Crashes to Ignition Failure

General Motors Co. has now linked 47 crashes to small cars with defective ignition switches while saying it hasn’t increased the number of deaths tied to the accidents. “We have done a thorough analysis of all the information available to …

Carmakers, Regulators Looking Into Flaws in Air Bag Technology

When Ford Motor Co. recalled 600,000 sport-utility vehicles last week, it became the fourth carmaker this year to acknowledge an issue with malfunctioning air bags. So far in 2014, automakers in the U.S. have recalled about 6.6 million cars and …

GM’s Mid-Sized SUVs Get Good News in Insurance Safety Test

General Motors Co.’s Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain earned the top marks among mid-size sport-utility vehicles in a test designed to simulate one of the deadliest types of front-end collisions. The two models earned a rating of “good” in results …

GM Hires Feinberg to Handle Recall; CEO Barra Testifies Before Congress

General Motors Co. has retained Kenneth Feinberg, who supervised claims funds after the BP Plc oil spill and other calamities, as a consultant to explore options for families of accident victims whose vehicles are being recalled for ignition-switch defects. Calling …

For Safety Advocates, GM Recall Highlights Cuts in Government Investigations

The U.S. office responsible for monitoring safety defects in cars has had its budget stagnate and its staff cut by one-fifth from highs more than a decade ago, when Congress tried to strengthen it. While no one has connected cuts …

Georgia Lawyer Dug Deep to Bring Case Against General Motors

Six days after General Motors Co. recalled almost 800,000 Chevrolet Cobalts and Pontiac G5s for a defect that could cause surprise engine shutdowns, lawyer Lance Cooper, a solo practitioner in Georgia, sent government regulators a letter: There are more faulty …

GM Kept Ignition Switch Fix Secret from Owners

General Motors Co. took advantage of a regulatory gray area to address an engine defect almost a decade ago, leaving most car owners unaware that their vehicles may have been unsafe. Rather than issue a recall, GM sent notices to …