Ford is recalling more than 128,000 Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan sedans from the 2010 and 2011 model years because the wheels can fall off the cars.  Oops.

The recall affects only cars with 17-inch steel wheels built from April 1, 2009. through April 30, 2009, and from Dec. 1, 2009, through Nov. 13, 2010.

Federal regulators say that bolts holding the wheels on can fracture, causing a vibration. If the vibration is ignored, the wheels can separate from the car.

Ford says it’s not aware of any crashes or injuries caused by the problem.

Ford to Recall 128,000 Fusion, Milan sedans over wheel issue is a post from: Accident & Injury Law in Texas

Kia Motors is recalling more than 70,000 Optima midsize sedans to fix transmission problems that can cause the cars to roll even while they’re in park.

The cars are from the 2006 through 2008 model years and were built from Sept. 29, 2005 to June 13, 2007.

Kia said that one some of the cars, a transmission shifter cable was installed incorrectly.

Kia recalling 70,000 Optimas over transmission problems is a post from: Accident & Injury Law in Texas

Under government pressure, Ford Motor Co. said Wednesday it, will recall nearly 150,000 F-150 pickup trucks to fix air bags that could deploy without warning.

The recall covers trucks from the 2005-2006 model years in the United States and Canada for what the auto company calls a “relatively low risk” of the air bag deploying inadvertently.

The recall, however, is much smaller in scope than what the government had requested. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, citing 77 injuries, told the company in a November 2010 memo that the recall should cover 1.3 million F-150 trucks from the 2004- 2006 model years.

The F-150 is the flagship of Ford’s popular F-Series pickup trucks, the best-selling vehicle in America. The government expanded its investigation into the air bag problems in January 2010.

A Transportation Department spokeswoman said the agency was currently reviewing Ford’s response to see if the recall was adequate. If the government determines that the recall is too limited, it could lead to a rare public hearing to decide whether Ford should expand its safety action.

NHTSA said in a Nov. 24 memo that it knew of 238 cases in which the air bags improperly deployed and noted that Ford made production changes to the trucks in 2006 and 2007 to fix the air bag wiring and other issues.

Government regulators said in the memo that Ford did not believe the issue “warrants any corrective action” because the number of reports and incidents were low, owners received “adequate warning” from the air bag warning light and the “resulting injuries are minor in nature.”

Ford spokesman Wes Sherwood said in a statement Wednesday that the recall covered trucks built at the Norfolk, Va., assembly plant from November 2004 through June 2005.

Sherwood said the majority of the complaints involved trucks built during the first shift of production at the Norfolk plant and the rates of air bags accidentally deploying were much higher in trucks built at the Virginia plant than those built at plants in Michigan and Missouri.

Ford said an air bag wire located in the steering wheel could have been improperly positioned so it would chafe, expose bare copper and create the possibility of a short circuit that would light up the airbag warning lamp.

Ford said most of the air bag issues happened within the first few seconds of the vehicle starting up and the company said it was aware of “one customer that jumped from the vehicle” after the air bag deployed while the truck was parked in a driveway.

The recall, which was first reported by the Detroit News, is expected to begin in early March. Owners will be notified and told to bring their truck to their dealer.

Ford recalls F-150s for faulty air bags is a post from: Accident & Injury Law in Texas

Federal law protects pharmaceutical companies from lawsuits by parents who claim that vaccines harmed their children, the Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

The court ruled 6-2 that a special tribunal set up by Congress is the only way parents can be compensated for the negative side effects that sometimes accompany vaccinations.

The majority said that Congress found such a system necessary to ensure that vaccines remain readily available and that federal regulators are in the best position to decide whether vaccines are safe and properly designed.

The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 “reflects a sensible choice to leave complex epidemiological judgments about vaccine design to the FDA and the National Vaccine Program rather than juries,” Justice Antonin Scalia wrote.

Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented, saying the threat of lawsuits provides an incentive for vaccine manufacturers to constantly monitor and improve their products.

The decision is a victory for vaccine-makers such as Wyeth and GlaxoSmithKline. Kathleen Sullivan, who represented Wyeth in the case before the court, told justices that ruling against the company could lead to thousands of lawsuits in which parents claim, for instance, that the mumps, measles and rubella vaccine played a role in their children’s autism.

The Obama administration backed the vaccine-makers. Justice Elena Kagan was recused because of her work on the case as solicitor general.

The case was brought by Russell and Robalee Bruesewitz on behalf of their daughter Hannah, 18. Hannah began to have seizures as an infant after receiving the third of five scheduled doses of Wyeth’s Tri-Immunol diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus vaccine. The company, now owned by Pfizer, has taken the drug off the market.

The 1986 federal law said that all such claims must, first go to a special tribunal commonly called the Vaccine Court. The program has awarded nearly $2 billion for vaccine-injury claims in nearly 2,500 cases since 1989. It is funded by a tax on immunizations.

But the tribunal ruled against the Bruesewitzes, saying they had not proved that the vaccine harmed Hannah, who will need lifelong care.

Ruling protects vaccine-makers from lawsuits is a post from: Accident & Injury Law in Texas

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.”

Honda recalls Accord, Civic, Element for transmission woes is a post from: Accident & Injury Law in Texas

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.”

Many Toyota wrecks may be the result of footwork is a post from: Accident & Injury Law in Texas

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.

Study Show Avandia Creates Higher Risks is a post from: Accident & Injury Law in Texas

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.

GM to recall 1.5 million vehicles for windshield washer warmers is a post from: Accident & Injury Law in Texas

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.

US. agency looking into reports of trapped pedals in Ford cars is a post from: Accident & Injury Law in Texas

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.”

Company behind recalls of kids’ drugs may face criminal penalties is a post from: Accident & Injury Law in Texas