Monday, October 7, 2013

"Let's make it official"

             Received the official letter from GM stating that this case was close. GM states in the letter "At this time,based on all documentation received, ESIS, on behalf of General Motors LLC, will not be in a position to honor your request for damages.  Wow thanks GM for giving me the heads up on this one because I didn't even know that I had a requested for damages. When I made the initial call to you I stated that I wanted you to look at the vehicle because maybe you could get some information from the car to make if safer for the consumer. Quoting from Cool Hand Luke "What we have here is a failure to communicate". Review my initial call in to you and tell me if I stated anything different.
                                 Well this is my last post unless for some reason I receive something worth talking about. To those of you out there driving the Chevy Cruze be safe and be aware.



Sunday, October 6, 2013

My Questions to GM...

       I wrote this Blog because I was concern about the safety of these vehicles. I am lucky that a Rub Hit only gave my daughter the injuries that she had. I truly think this car needs to be reviewed for airbag safety. If you notice in the pictures the Ford Explores airbag did deploy and the driver walked away. If that vehicle would have hit my daughter in the drivers door would the airbag have deployed? The only injury that my daughter sustained, besides the normal body bruising, was a concussion from her head hitting the drivers window. The airbag could have prevented this. Another question I have for GM labeling this as a "Rub Hit" is why then was the car totaled by the insurance company?  Replacing plastic, which is what GM claims was damaged on the car, is not that costly. The insurance company would not have total this vehicle. I believe GM did not want to deal with another airbag complaint because this issue is teetering on a RECALL.
       Thank you for taking the time to read this blog. Please share your comments with me. GM here is the picture of my daughters new car. I wish it was a Chevy, she loves it but best of all she feels Safe!



     Just a little more reading about GM airbag issues:  http://www.consumeraffairs.com/automotive/gm_airbags.html

Friday, October 4, 2013

The Evaluation......

     As stated in my last post it would take GM 3 to 6 weeks to retrieve and evaluate the information for the vehicle. Seven days later I received a call from Yvette Young stating that they were done with the evaluation and she wanted to go over with me there findings. Yvette stated to me that the GM engineers labeled this crash as a Rub. She stated that this type of accident doesn't deal with anything structural with the car it's all plastic. She said that because of this the air bags did not deploy. I asked Yvette, who wanted to hang up after relaying this information to me, if anyone actually went out and looked at the vehicle. She said that she didn't have a lot of information in front of her but did see some pictures, so they must have. I told Yvette that  the police office label this car on his report as Very-Severe Damage. I told her that the insurance company evaluated this vehicle as having structural damage beyond repair. She told me that the insurance company's information has  nothing to do with the way they evaluate a vehicle. Once again she wanted to hang up on me. Yvette was very impatient and I made it known to her. Yvette told me that she was just relaying information from the engineers findings and she didn't have any other information to go off. She also stated that I would receive a copy in the mail. This is a copy of that information.







I ended my conversation with, "I can see that GM really cares about the safety of their customers and I can tell that this was a waste of time for me". I was quite upset about the way that this was handled and that the person who did the calling back (Yvette) could not answer some of the question that concerned me.

The Call To GM

        On Wednesday Sept. the 11th at 7:07 pm I made my call to GM ( 1-800-222-1020) and spoke with a rep. by the name of Yolanda.  I discussed with Yolanda the events that unfolded on the morning of the accident. She questioned me on how Ashley was doing and expressed her concerns for her. I then expressed my concerns about the airbags never deploying on her vehicle. I told Yolanda that my reason for calling was to see if GM wanted to look at the vehicle to collect information as to why this happened so that they can make their product safer for the consumer. I told her that my father has been a GM man all his life and I pretty much followed in the same path. My Dad talked Ashley into the purchase of this vehicle because of it's safety rating and of course because it was a Chevy. Yoland took my information down and told me that she would pass it along to another person that would contact me back in 24 to 48 hours. She gave me my GM case number to reference anytime I had questions during the process. Before hanging up I gave Yolanda the name and extension of the insurance agent that was dealing with Ashley's claim so that they could give them the heads up if they wanted to look at the car. She thanked me and said they would be in touch. On Monday, five day later, I received a call from Kathy with GM  ( 1-866-790-5600 ) . She explained to me that she would be handling the case and that she needed some information about the accident. We discussed everything from the time of day, the weather that day, to Ashley's height. She asked about other vehicles involved and if anyone was injured. I relayed all known information to her as well as the name again of  the contact person at my insurance company so they could tell them to hold the vehicle until it was inspected. On Sept. 20th my daughter received a call from an Yvette Young who is a third party administrator for General Motors working for ESIS/GM Central Claims Unit. She stated that she would be handling the claim and asked my daughters some questions one of them being , "What is the name of the insurance person who is handling your claim". This was the third time this information was provided to GM. In this world of technology it seems that things like this happen over and over again. Gm it's called a shared network. By now I'm getting upset because I have been informed that the vehicle has been totaled and a check will be issued for the value of the vehicle. I am not sure if they are going to hold the car long enough for GM to look at it. GM did setup an appointment to see the vehicle which was followed by a letter stating that this could take 3 to 6 weeks to come to a conclusion.  Remember the soul purpose of me doing this was to help GM out with information about there product so that they could make it safer. This was all done for them not me.

Day 1 "The Accident"

         On September 9th at around 7:21 am my daughter Ashley was in an accident with her 2011 Chevy Cruze. She was heading to her first day of work as an Registered Nurse. She didn't see the vehicle approaching her from the left and pulled out in front of it. Her car was hit on the drivers side just in front of the front wheel at about 40 to 45 miles an hour. I will never forget getting the call from my wife that morning stating to me that "Ashley was just in a accident".  I was working 25 minutes from home and had to travel through the worst traffic of the day. This was the longest ride of my life. My wife called me when she arrived at the scene and said that she was able to talk with Ashley for a moment. She stated that Ashley was complaining about her neck and back and that there was emergency personal on the scene and they were transporting her to the hospital. My wife told me that Ashley pulled out in front of a 2002 Ford Explorer. The Explorer then hit a school bus which was at a stand still. Thoughts were racing through my head as to how injured my daughter was. When I arrived at the hospital I was informed that Ashley had a concussion from her head hit the drivers window and they were waiting for results of the  x-ray's on her neck which came back all clear.  I discussed the accident with the officer that came to the scene. He explained the details to me and that Ashley would receive a citation due to her being at fault. He also told me that he was a little shocked that no air bags deployed in the vehicle. The officer stated that he was no engineer but he would have thought that one of the bags would have deployed. When the vehicle was hit on the front end it spun so hard that the back end whipped around striking the Explore a second time. The following are pictures from the scene.





What happened that day happens to many parents each and every day with outcomes far worst then what we had to deal with. I discussed the accident with my daughter and she stated to me that she remembers the impact and then coming to her senses and seeing the driver of the Explorer getting out and walking to the side of the road and  immediately began snapping pictures of the scene. She also stated that a driver pulled up next to her, rolled down his window and snap a picture before leaving the scene. This really bothered me that no one came to check on my daughter to see how she was. She had no assistance until a person living in the area who worked for the Menomonee Falls fire department came to her aid. We were able to walk out of the hospital with are daughter that day which I thank God for every chance I get. If the impact would have been five more feet back my daughters head would have hit the front of the Explorer instead of the side window. It took about a week before all the aches and pains went away for Ashley. During that time we needed to pull items from her vehicle because it was being totaled by the insurance company. When we arrived at the tow yard we removed the items and signed some paperwork to release the vehicle. While talking to the women at the front desk she also made a comment about the air bags not deploying. I told her that when my daughter purchased this car one of the selling points was the high safety rating the vehicle had as noted in this link. ( http://www.autotrader.com/research/article/new-research-safety/76382/chevrolet-cruze-first-to-earn-five-star-crash-test.jsp  )  This was the second time someone questioned the air bags not deploying. That evening I received an email from my brother with the following link attached ( http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2013/06/04/us-safety-agency-may-expand-gm-airbag-recall/ ). The model year talked about in this link was the 2012 Cruze a year newer then Ashley's vehicle. My Google search results brought up many links about GM airbag issues or recalls. I thought at this point it was time to contact GM.