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Auto-parts giant accused of ignoring safety issues - A former Magna International Inc. employee is accusing the auto-parts giant of ignoring a serious safety problem that, he alleges, could spark explosions in thousands of Ford Motor Co. and Mazda cars. In a constructive-dismissal lawsuit, one-time plant manager George Budhram is alleging his former supervisor wrongly contracted out production of fuel-tank straps used in thousands of 2007 model year Ford Mustang and Mazda 6 cars, and then lied to the automaker about safety tests performed on the key car part. The $1.8-million lawsuit, which names Magna and its wholly-owned Cosma International unit as defendants, portrays Mr. Budhram as a whistle-blower who claims that fuel tanks in as many as 30,000 Ford and Mazda vehicles are at risk of coming loose. "If the fuel tank straps fail, the gas tanks on vehicles will make contact with the road, causing friction, which can lead to a gas explosion, thereby resulting in death or injury to those in the vehicles or to persons on the road nearby," reads the 11-page claim filed this week in Ontario Superior Court.
None of the allegations has been proven. Mr. Budhram alleges production of the fuel-tank straps was supposed to be completed in-house at Magna subsidiaries Normark Manufacturing and Maple Stamping. Instead, the veteran Magna employee alleges his immediate boss at the Toronto-area companies hired an outside manufacturer to do the work -- a breach of the Ford contract. The outside firm did not specialize in welding and made parts that were "defective and did not meet the specifications and requirements of the Defendant's customer, Ford," the claim reads. The outside manufacturer also failed to properly test the tank straps for safety, and didn't have the necessary devices to do a full check on the parts, the lawsuit alleges. The Magna subsidiaries "fraudulently created" documents "falsely showing" that a full safety test was performed, the lawsuit alleges. "At all material times, Ford was misled about the testing of the fuel tank straps," the lawsuit claims. (National Post, Feb 5)

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