Employee Health
Posted by Fred Jandt
Editor, Mass Transit
On Monday 11 former transit employees or their next of kin filed a lawsuit in the New York Supreme Court against the manufacturers of diesel engines and buses citing exposure to diesel fumes as the cause of severe medical problems.
Since then seven more plaintiffs have been added to the suit, and that number could continue to grow, possibly causing a wealth of problems for the diesel bus industry.
Of those who filed on Monday, nine have various forms of cancer and the others have a variety of heart conditions. According to the plaintiff’s claims, they were exposed to undue amounts of diesel fumes while working in unventilated bus depots.
The defendants include General Motors, Detroit Diesel, Cummins Diesel, Northrop Grumman Corp., Orion Bus Industries and other companies. The most telling claim by the plaintiffs is that the defendants manufactured engines in such a way as to pass emissions standards, but that contained “defeat devices” that could be switched off after testing.
First of all, I believe the fact that more than half again as many plaintiffs have been added in less than a week is just the proverbial iceberg’s tip. As the news of this case spreads across the country, I expect a vastly larger number of plaintiffs to come out of the woodwork.
Just think about how many buses were sold over the 40-or-so year period they are discussing here. If the plaintiff’s claims are true, how many of those buses were outfitted with these “defeat devices”?
Now, while I won’t put it past a massive company to cut corners to make money — it’s happened before and, unfortunately, will happen again — I have to wonder about these “defeat devices.” If they were indeed installed on the vehicles (and I’m not saying they weren’t), then someone would have to turn them off. Did someone at the transit agency knowingly do that?
Or were they surreptitiously implanted in engines? That I find harder to believe. I’ve been around enough bus garages to know that the mechanics in there know the engines in their fleet better than the ones in their own cars.
There is much more about this story that is going to come out. I think the truth is going to fall somewhere in the middle between the two parties. What will the end result be? It’s hard to say with anything of this nature, but with the desire for alternative fuels and desire for public transit both at all-time highs, it might just hasten agencies to switch to hybrid or electric vehicles.
Thanks for reading the MT Position updated every Friday,
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:39 am
If someone has a legitimate claim I am all for them. However, I see this becoming a large class action lawsuit that thousands are going to jump on. The lawyers will get richer, truly injured people won’t get what they deserve and it will hurt business here and force more companies to go overseas. I’ve been in this business 30 years and I don’t know what a “defeat device” is. Are they talking about throttle delay?
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:57 am
I worked for the transit authority buses in Brooklyn for 30 years. I retired in 2003 but have had numerous health issues since. i would like to know what this lawsuit is about and if i can be a part of it. Besides driving for 25 years I also worked in ulmer park depot for 5 years parking buses. there was no ventilation and the noise from vaccuming the money out of the buses was deafening.I would appreaciate any information you could send to me.
Thank You
August 23rd, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Garbage in, garbage out. It seems running the engines with high alcohol content fuel during the EPA inspections could clean up the exhaust during the monitoring period.
Particulates are worse with high sulfer or heavier fuel oils. Also, some engine families seemed to produce higher NOX levels, and compression ratios could affect that part of the picture. The “device” story seems more a lawyer’s artifice than anything. The culprit may be more to do with the fuel used in a particular testing or operating regime. Pretty easy for a manufacturer to run a specially formulated fuel during the monitoring period! We are talking big money here, folks. Private enterprise usually has some “extra private” parts of the story…
The entire story of shift from electric streetcars has not been told, nor will all the pieces ever be assembled, probably. Just to broaden the scope of of discussion on the transport evolution saga in America, the airline & trucking Co. employees of the 1940’s would joke about putting bricks in the mailbags to maintain US Mail weight averages to secure & extend contracts. Mail by rail? So sorry…
August 26th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
I’ve worked in transportation for 19 years. It was no secret that there were hazardous materials, pollution, and high voltage; it’s part of the job. I knew when I sat in traffic in New York City that I was breathing pollution; so does everyone else in New York.
However, I never knowingly lied about the pollution, or the health risks. That would be fraud. If someone can prove fraud, it’s a whole different story.
August 27th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
The “defeat devices” were part of the diesel engines when sold. The EPA caught the 6 diesel engine manufacturers and fined them $83 million dollars in 2004. They’d been using them since at least 1990. Caterpillar was then fined another $130 million for not rectifying the problem fast enough. Contact me at john@nynylaw.com if you want to know more; I am a lawyer for the bus drivers.