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Saturday, January 16, 2016

Md. mom wants law to protect certain auto dealers

WASHINGTON — A Maryland mom who lost her daughter in a crash is pushing for a state law that protects dealers who disclose potential safety issues with vehicles before they are recalled.

Laura Christian, of Harwood, is supporting two similar bills that will be presented in the coming weeks to the Maryland House of Delegates and the Senate.

“Dealerships would be able to tell consumers when they bring the car in, or through other notification, if their car has a potential safety issue on it, when it hasn’t gone to recall yet,” Christian said.

Right now, correspondence between dealers and manufacturers on issues seen with specific models are shared in Technical Service Bulletins or TSBs. While the bulletins are available to all car owners online, many dealers have agreements with manufactures not to share knowledge of TSBs unless owners ask about an issue according to Christian.

It was in 2004 that Laura Christian reconnected with the daughter she put up for adoption back in 1988. A year later, her daughter died in a crash after she lost control of her Chevy Cobalt in Charles County. Both alcohol and speeding were factors in the crash, The Washington Post reported in 2005.

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Christian is completely incorrect....I'm a nearly 30 year tech. Tsb's are used to assist techs in repairing cars. They aren't related to safety. Safety issues are always handled with a recall. The Tsb is always available to the public if your aware of it or Google it. There is no big secret about them. Maybe if the alcohol and speeding were avoided she would still be alive.

Anonymous said...

Her daughter made a poor choice and it cost a life. The Tsb about the key is one of thousands. The complaint has to be presented first then the Tsb would be applied. Not all tsb's are written for all cars. This woman is incorrect in her claim. There are simply to many tsb's to know them all. I can't tell you how many times in all of my years in the auto biz that I have recommended safety related repairs to a client to only have them drive off.

Anonymous said...

The way i see it is - The manufacturer of the car should have put a safety recall or an TSB on the car about Drinking and driving. Then the manufacturer should have put a safety recall or an TSB out on speeding while drunk behind the wheel.
Some parents just can not except when their child makes a bad choice in life.
My question is this was the behavior of the child learned from the adopted/real parents?
i guess that is the way of the world now is to blame others for your faults, instead of evaluating yourself and your choices you have made in life!

Thornton Crowe said...

While I feel for this woman's loss, the fact remains her child made the decision to drive drunk. Her abilities and judgment were impaired. Life is not fair and it often sucks when people make bad choices.

Car manufacturers are no more cop-able for this than computer companies are for carpal tunnel syndrome.

What is with today's society? Whatever happened to a person taking responsibility for his/her own actions and decisions?