Lara’s Law
Two years ago, Lara Gass, a third-year law student at Washington and Lee University, died when her car crashed into the rear of a tractor-trailer truck. Her Saturn had a critical safety defect that prevented her driver-side airbag from deploying.
Since then, Lara’s parents, Jay and Gerri Gass, have been advocating for important public policy changes to add greater accountability to the auto industry.
In an op-ed piece for The Tennessean, they wrote, “We have been working with state Senator Mark Green and state Representative Curtis Johnson to introduce Lara’s Law, a bill intended to ensure that a used vehicle with an open recall on that vehicle be fixed prior to it being sold, rented and/or leased.
“Right now, a potential buyer could walk into any used car dealership in the state and purchase a vehicle with an active safety recall notice without even knowing it because dealership personnel are not required to inform the buyer about open safety recalls. That’s a significant flaw in the used car buying process here in Tennessee and across the country.”
They note, “The bill in its current form needs amending to accomplish what our family originally intended it to do by having all used cars repaired prior to selling that vehicle. The problem we face now is time.
We need the public’s help to encourage the legislature to pass Lara’s Law this year, and are asking people to call or write their state senator and representative to let them know recalls must be fixed on all used vehicles before they can be sold.”
For more information about Lara, visit www.livelikelara.org. Jay and Gerri are also members of the GM Recall Survivors Group. For additional information about this organization, visit http://www.gmrecallsurvivors.com.
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