<VV> Nader And----

[Smitty]

But he knew of the Corvair lawsuits, and how GM was handling them. He asked 
why people were being injured and killed in Corvairs 
James Rice
------------------------------------------------
Smitty Says;  James I know the auto industry was rather cavalier about an 
acceptable level of loss of human life in their products.  Ford admitted 
that in the Pinto fuel tank fiasco.  I do believe that those failures of 
safety should have been brought under scrutiny and dealt with.  But when the 
man made a blanket attack on Corvairs in his first chapter, he was wrong. 
He attacked the overall safety of the car which was proven to be in error. 
Many words have been printed on both sides of the argument, but how many 
were Corvair wrecks where the driver was an unskilled young person that 
might not even have been able to handle any car at the limit he was 
expecting?  How many were by middle aged people who couldn't be bothered 
with reading the glove box door or owners manual on tire pressures?  How 
many took the kid at the filling stations word on correct tire pressure even 
though they had read the manual.  How many enjoyed the sweet handling of 
Earlies at moderate speeds and then exceeded their own driving limits when 
they pushed too hard?  Were those GMs fault?  Subtract those from the over 
all incidents, and there would have been damn few left.  Which, if Nadir 
were an honest man rather than a self aggrandizing lawyer, he would have 
done, to arrive at factual numbers.  His minions should have been busting 
their butts to get out to the salvage yards to check tire pressures and 
driver experience levels and how many kids were packed in the car and 
whether booze was involved if they were after truth.  Instead, he just 
claimed that every wrecked Corvair vindicated his stand.
Let me lay a situation on you.  It was supposed to sleet and snow today but 
I wanted to make a visit to an old friend in a "home" about 25 miles away. 
I sat and talked to him for about an hour, keeping an eye out the window for 
precipitation.  When I stood up I realized that it had sleeted about an inch 
and I never seen it coming down.  I told him I better get headed home before 
it got worse.  I got out on the Interstate and into the darndest mess of 
nutty traffic I have seen in years.  If I had piled up my Corvair on the way 
home, whose fault could it be?  GMs.  I hardly think so.  When I was doing 
everything in my power to stay safe, you don't think I would want to accept 
any responsibility for a wreck do you.  But ultimately it would be my fault. 
I chose to be out there.  And that is the difference between me and the low 
lifes in the world that think everyone owes them a "Pass".  That is the kind 
of thinking Nadir promoted with his tort law promotions. 
See You at the PW