Accident & Injury Law in Texas

Archive for the ‘Defective Products’ Category

Honda Motor Co. is recalling the popular Accord and Civic passenger cars to address problems with an ignition switch that could allow the key to be removed without the transmission being shifted into park, its third recall for the problem since 2003.

Honda said the most recent recall involved 384,220 vehicles and includes 2003 model year Accord and Civics and 2003-04 versions of the Honda Element. Honda told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that the defect with the automatic transmissions could lead to a vehicle rolling away.

The Japanese automaker said it has received several complaints about the ignition interlock and “is aware of a small number of related incidents, including one that resulted in a minor injury.”

Government investigators and Toyota Motor Corporation have reportedly found that driver error, not sudden unintended acceleration, may have caused dozens, of accidents involving Toyota vehicles.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that a federal analysis of data from dozens of crashes blamed on sudden acceleration suggested that some drivers who lost control of their vehicles were mistakenly flooring the accelerator when they intended to hit the brakes.

Thousands of cases of unintended acceleration are being investigated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in conjunction with NASA.

Toyota Motor Corporation spokesman Mike Michels said “virtually all” of 2,000 cases of reported unintended acceleration the automaker has reviewed resulted from drivers stepping on the gas pedal instead of the brake.

NHTSA has received 3,000 reports of sudden acceleration in Toyota and Lexus automobiles, and Toyota has recalled 8.5 million vehicles worldwide to alter gas pedals that might stick or remove floor mats that in some cases have trapped gas pedals and made if impossible for drivers, to stop.

Toyota said that its investigations into the accidents have determined “a number of explanations or causes,” but insisted that “in no case have we found electronic throttle controls to be a cause.”

A new study led by a federal drug safety expert ties the diabetes drug Avandia to a higher risk of heart problems, strokes and deaths in older adults and says it is more dangerous than a rival drug, Actos.

The study, a huge review of Medicare records, comes two weeks ahead of a Food and Drug Administration hearing on Avandia’s safety.

The lead author, Dr. David Graham, is an FDA scientist who wants the pill banned.

As many as 100,000 heart attacks, strokes, deaths and cases of heart failure may be due to Avandia since it came on the market in 1999, Graham said.

General Motors Co. is recalling 1.53 million cars and trucks worldwide because fires can be ignited by components used for heating windshield washer fluid.

The company said Tuesday that it will disable the heating mechanism in the washers of Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Hummer and Saturn brands from model years 2006 to 2009 and pay owners $100 for each vehicle because the feature won’t be available and the maker of the units is out of business.

Since Toyota Motor Corp. recalled more than 8 million vehicles worldwide this year for defects that may cause unintended acceleration, U.S. regulators have stepped up scrutiny of auto safety, and Congress is considering measures to tighten regulation of the industry.

GM’s heated windshield washer, which the company said was supplied by Micro-Heat Inc., was recalled in 2008 for repairs. The automaker received five reports of fires in the components in the past year, prompting Tuesday’s action, the company said.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had investigated a windshield wiper flaw before GM issued the 2008 recall.

The regulator in 2004 fined GM $1 million, at the time its largest civil penalty, to settle charges the company failed to conduct a timely recall of about 600,000 vehicles for wipers that stopped working or failed to turn on when needed.

Micro-Heat, which filed for bankruptcy in 2008 after GM stopped offering its Hotshot wiper-fluid heater, was based in Farmington Hills, Mich.

GM said in 2008 that Micro-Heat should bear the $19.2 million cost of recalling 944,000 cars and trucks for the earlier recall, according to court papers in the bankruptcy filing.

The recall includes 1,365,070 vehicles in the U.S., 98,794 in Canada, 26,228 in Mexico and 38,093 exported to other countries, GM said. Vehicles included in the U.S. recall are the Buick Enclave and Lucerne; Cadillac CTS, DTS, Escalade, Escalade ESV and Escalade Err; Chevrolet Avalanche, Silverado 3590, Suburban, Tahoe and Traverse; GMC Acadia, Sierra, Yukon and Yukon XL; Hummer H2; and Saturn Outlook.

Federal safety regulators are investigating a few reports of gas pedals becoming trapped by floor mats in 2010 Ford Fusions and Mercury Milans.

Officials with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Tuesday that the agency opened a preliminary investigation last Friday after receiving three such complaints involving unsecured all-weather floor mats. There are no reports of crashes or injuries. Safety officials said the investigation covers about 250,000 Fusions and Milans.

A Ford spokesman, Said Deep, said the problem was attributable to drivers stacking all-weather mats on top of floor mats that come with the vehicle. Ford’s all-weather mats have warnings advising customers not to stack them and to secure them properly to the floor, Deep said.

The Johnson & Johnson unit that recalled millions of bottles of liquid children’s Tylenol and other pediatric medicines last month may face criminal penalties, product seizures or other sanctions, an official from the Food and Drug Administration said last Thursday.

The agency is considering further actions against McNeil Consumer Healthcare, the Johnson & Johnson unit, said Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, the FDA’s principal deputy comissioner, at a congressional hearing Thursday.

On April 30, McNeil voluntarily recalled more than 136 million bottles of liquid pediatric Tylenol, Motrin, Benadryl and Zyrtec because they may have contained too much of the active ingredient of the drug, metal specks or inactive ingredients that failed testing requirements, the agency said. But McNeil’s problems go beyond those related to last month’s recall, including other forms of contamination, dating back two years.

Sharfstein noted lengthy delays by the company in reporting problems to the agency. And in one case, in 2008, he said, McNeil hired a contractor to quietly remove packages of Motrin from retailers for suspected quality problems — which he suggested was essentially an unannounced recall that was not reported to the FDA.

Sharfstein said the FDA was “considering additional enforcement actions against the company for its pattern of noncompliance. which may include seizures, injunction or criminal penalties.”

“I have become deeply concerned about your company,” Rep. Edolphus Towns, chairman of House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, told the Johnson &. Johnson executive who testified. “It paints a picture of a company that is deceptive, dishonest and that has risked the health of many of our citizens.”

About 170,000 drop-side cribs are being recalled after six infants were injured. The cribs were distributed nationwide from January 2000 to March 2010 under the names C&T International, Sorelle and Golden Baby. Consumers wanting more information should call 877-791-9398.

More than 1 million baby slings made by Infantino were recalled Wednesday after claims linked them to three infant deaths.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission said babies could suffocate in the soft fabric slings. The agency urged parents to immediately stop using the slings for babies younger than 4 months.

The recall involves 1 million Infantino “SlingRider” and “Wendy Bellissimo” slings in the United. States as well as 15,000 in Canada.

Infantino President Jack Vresics said the company was working closely with the safety
commission.

“Our top priority is the safety of infants whose parents and caregivers use our products,” Vresics said. The company will offer a free replacement baby carrier, activity gym or shopping cart cover to any affected consumer, Vresics said. Consumers can call Infantino at 866-860-1361.

The slings wrap around the chest so on-the-go parents can carry their babies or just stay close as they bond with their infants.

Earlier this month, the safety commission issued a broad warning about sling-style baby carriers, saying they pose a potential suffocation risk to infants, especially to babies younger than 4 months or who had a low birth weight, were born prematurely or had breathing problems such as colds.

At the time, the commission didn’t single out a specific sling or manufacturer. The agency said it had identified or was investigating at least 14 deaths in the past 20 years associated with baby slings.

Wednesday’s announcement said three of the deaths occurred last year and were linked to Infantino slings.

Experts say slings that keep a newborn baby solidly against the carrier’s body, in an upright position, are safe.

Honda Motor Co. will recall more than 410,00 Odyssey minivans and Element SUVs from the 2007 and 2008 model years because of braking system problems that could make it tougher to stop the vehicle if not repaired.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has reported three crashes due to the problem with minor injuries and no deaths, a Honda spokesman said.

Hundreds of people taking the diabetes drug Avandia needlessly suffer heart attacks and heart failure each month, according to confidential government reports that recommend that the drug be removed from the market.

The reports, obtained by The New York Times, say that if every diabetic now taking Avandia were instead given a similar pill named Actos, about 500 heart attacks and 300 cases of heart failure would be averted every month because Avandia can hurt the heart.

Avandia, intended to treat type 2 diabetes, is known as rosiglitazone and was linked to 304 deaths during the third quarter of 2009.

“Rosiglitazone should be removed from the market,” one of the reports, written by Drs. David Graham and Kate Gelperin of the Food and Drug Administration, concludes. Both authors recommended that Avandia be withdrawn.

The internal FDA reports are part of a fierce debate within the agency over what to do about Avandia, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline.

Some agency officials want the drug withdrawn because they believe there is a safer alternative; others insist that studies of the drug provide contradictory information and that Avandia should continue to be an option for doctors and patients.

The battle has been brewing for years but has been brought to a head by a fierce disagreement over a new clinical trial and a Senate investigation that concluded that GlaxoSmithKline should have warned patients earlier of the drug’s potential risks.

Avandia was once one of the biggest-selling drugs in the world. Driven in part by a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign, sales were $3.2 billion in 2006. But a 2007 study by a Cleveland Clinic cardiologist suggesting that the drug harmed the heart prompted the FDA to issue a warning, and sales plunged.

The bipartisan, multiyear Senate investigation — whose results are expected to be released publicly today but which werealso obtained by the Times — sharply criticizes GlaxoSmithKline, saying it failed to warn patients years earlier that Avandia was potentially deadly.