Airbag settlements keep details from other victims of accidents – Automotive News
By Jeff Green and Margaret Cronin Fisk
Takata doesn’t comment on pending litigation, spokesman Alby Berman said in an e-mailed statement. The company is cooperating fully with NHTSA and is working to meet its requests, he said.
Confidential agreements are keeping valuable information out of the public eye, lawyers and safety advocates say. Many of the details that helped get to the root of a General Motors ignition-switch flaw came from statements made in depositions after the automaker chose to fight a lawsuit rather than settle, said attorney Lance Cooper. His pursuit of a wrongful-death case involving a GM vehicle is credited by safety advocates with triggering recalls of 2.59 million vehicles this year.