If you travel much, then you have probably rented a car.  Usually, when you rent a car, you assume that the car has been properly maintained and that if the car has been recalled for a safety problem, the rental company has had the safety problem fixed.  It turns out, according to the Center for Justice and Democracy, that we can’t assume car rental companies are heeding safety recalls.

      In their blog at thepoptort.com, the Center reports on the case of two sisters who died after the Chrysler PT Cruiser they rented from Enterprise burst into flames.  The vehicle had been subject to a recall for a leak of power steering fluid that could cause fires. 

      A reporter for the New York Times, Christopher Jensen, has reported on these rental car dangers, and one of his recent articles can be found here.  

      Now for the soapbox:  those who advocate for laws making it tougher to take companies to court fall silent about these kinds of cases, which expose the ugly truth that profit matters more than people to many of our nation’s largest companies.  And reporters, other than a few like Jensen, seem to sit idly by while our courts are relentlessly attacked by corporations and their allied interest groups.  When will they wake up to this assault on civil justice?