Volkswagen software caused dozens of deaths in the US … – Washington Post

The control system polluting engines Volkswagen has not been a simple trap without victims, but killed between five to 20 people in the United States annually in recent years, according to a statistical analysis and computerized The Associated Press.

The software that the company admitted that was used to circumvent the emission limits imposed by the government allowed the engines produce enough pollution to cause between 16 and 94 deaths for seven years , and annual count recently grew as more diesel to flow out. The total cost exceeded more than $ 100 million .

And that’s just in the United States. It was probably much more deadly and costly in Europe , where Volkswagen sells more diesel vehicles, the engineers said. Scientists and experts pointed out that the number of deaths in Europe could be as high as hundreds of people every year, but warned that it is difficult to transfer computer models of health and quality of US air European cities, which are more densely populated.

“Statistically, we can not point who died because of this policy, but some have died or probably died as a result of it, “said the professor of environmental engineering at Carnegie Mellon, Peter Adams, who calculated how damaging the contaminated air through a sophisticated computer model that he and the AP used in its analysis.

The brand would have installed an algorithm for the car know when in a laboratory.

The software altered allowed diesel Volkswagen vehicles emit between 10 and 40 times nitrogen oxides than permitted by law, making this “a clear concern for air quality and public health,” said Janet McCabe, acting head of air quality of the Agency for Environmental Protection (EPA).

The nitrogen oxides are smog-that dark and dirty air which complicates the hearing and in some people breathlessly, but also aggravate further and deadly problem: small particles of soot. Numerous medical studies show that these tiny particles cause about 50,000 deaths annually in the United States , most from heart problems.

Nitrogen oxides can travel thousands of kilometers, so that pollution in Pittsburgh can be felt on the east coast of the United States, Adams said.

Experts estimate how much pollution costs to society considering the value of the lives lost. In this case, Adams and others estimate that the lives lost -valuadas 8.6 billion each- outweigh costs such as lost workdays or hospitalization expenses. The total annual cost of pollutants in excess of the diesel VW was between 40 and 170 million, calculated professors environmental engineering.

investigate fraud knew what managers

Meanwhile, the German police are investigating what senior managers carmaker Volkswagen known fraud handling engines diesel, which has been losing 43% in the stock market since the scandal broke.

Two weeks after it came to light in the US handling of toxic emissions in diesel engines 189 EA 1.6 and 2 liters of Volkswagen, there are many doubt on those responsible for the fraud.

The German group holds its own research, which has instructed the US law firm Jones Day, to find those responsible for the handling.

Jones Day, which has investigated cases of corruption in other German companies like Siemens, inform the supervisory board of Volkswagen, a team of shareholders and employees supervisor.

Volkswagen, in which the state of Lower Saxony has a 20% stake, research expected to last months.

An Arab sheik gave a millionaire sum Uruguay President Jose Mujica, for their “Volkswagen Fusca” .

Martin Winterkorn, VW chairman from 2007 until his resignation last week, began his career in 1977, precisely in the department of research techniques Bosch process. The prosecutor’s office in Braunschweig (northern Germany) said this week that not investigating Winterkorn as previously reported, but investigates who is responsible.

The manipulation could have chosen in 2005 and 2006 at the headquarters in Wolfsburg, according to German media, when he chaired the group Volkswagen Bernd Pischetsrider and ran the Volkswagen Wolfgang Bernhard.

Volkswagen resigned installing a gas cleaning technology in the vehicle, which would have cost 300 euros per car and allowed to comply with regulations US, according to the German newspaper Handelsblatt. In the US the limit nitrogen oxide allowed is 48 milligrams per kilometer, while the European Euro5 admitted 160 milligrams and the new standard Euro6, 80 milligrams.

Bosch warned in 2007 that the Volkswagen group was only to test software and road use was illegal, as reported by the German press.

It is not known why the moment these warnings were not taken note in Volkswagen.

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