Heuliez in difficulty, the State takes its distances

Cerizay plant employees, that esp felt that six months of protection obtained by the final beneficiary, industry Baelen Gaillard (BGI), would be enough to save their working tools, d sang the approach of the date. "We are not s rassur. There is the risk of liquidation pure and simple", Xavier has HPLC d pebbles, d l gu CFDT.

None of the potential buyers - the Spanish industrial group Cosmos, the German consultant Matthias Bittner, and Fran ais L otard Christian - has deposited any folder last Wednesday, when CL Turo offers.

Cosmos, which seemed best plac, refuses to participate without an assurance that the German Volkswagen car manufacturer has chosen definitively d Heuliez a contract for the supply of pi these spare repr smelling to several tens of millions of euros a year. Heuliez would be in a good position, but Volkswagen makes play competition and must make its decision only after d, October 15.

"NOT BE ALLOW TO DROP HEULIEZ"

Its t c r a vot Regional Council of Poitou-Charente, on September 13 in favour of the creation of a company of mixed economy (SEM), whose purpose will be to support the company, j d e sauv by region in 2009 over time r an entrance at the height of the capital city of 5 million euros and more then a refundable deposit of 2.8 million.

"" "There is the right to leave Heuliez, has HPLC d reading the pr r regional Chairman S real goal."Only the region r can keep Heuliez pending a possible control flow. There is a transitional context am swim. It still pending".

This project, which would be the 650,000 euros of capital assur s 85% by public funds, you may not see the day that with the input bus the remaining 15%, will adjust ment regulatory r. "The SEM could secure 20: 30 jobs." If we can continue the current activity, can keep other hundred hundred and fifty. In two hundred and ninety, a social plan is therefore inevitable, "adds the d l gu CFDT."

HEULIEZ HAS NO FUTURE FOR MONTEBOURG

Minister of productive recovery, Arnaud Montebourg has shown much less enthusiastic about the future of Heuliez. There claim, on Monday, that public money had j' t injected into the company.

[The State] are not l to put scarce money on companies that don't have a future. It has however become slightly. In the case of Heuliez, seek solutions with providers of orders, commands, will be very easy. "Gold, I suffer from today is that, not with this company, find and secure a future with the commands".

There truck the option of nationalisation, which was t e voqu to the furnaces of ArcelorMittal Florange, because this last "was a company that guarantees the divorce".

After Delays, U.S. Takes a Step Forward on Rearview Cameras in Vehicles

DETROIT — To help prevent the deaths of children hit by cars that are backing up, the Transportation Department said Tuesday that it would add rearview cameras to its list of recommended safety measures.

The recommendation, though, fell short of a law passed by Congress in 2008 requiring that the department set standards for rear visibility. And it comes as a lawsuit by a consortium of safety advocates, to be filed Wednesday, claims that the department has taken more than twice as long to issue rules than the law intended.

The department has delayed its final ruling four times since the law took effect in 2008. It was to set visibility standards that could help prevent accidents while in reverse, including the installation of devices like cameras, mirrors or sensors.

The Transportation Department, which made the announcement through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, declined Tuesday evening to comment on the lawsuit.

The department recommends that the cameras cover a 20-foot by 10-foot area directly behind the vehicle, displaying the image within two seconds after the car is put in reverse and that it be large enough to help the driver see what is behind the car.

“As we’ve seen with other features in the past, adding rearview video systems to our list of recommended safety features will encourage both automakers and consumers to consider more vehicles that offer this important technology,” Anthony R. Foxx, the Transportation secretary, said in a statement. “While adding this technology to our list of safety features is important, I remain committed to implementing the rear visibility rule as well.”

But Greg Gulbransen, who accidentally killed his 2-year-old son in 2002 when backing the family’s sport utility vehicle into their driveway, said the agency’s delay in issuing a mandate was costing more lives each year.

“Children are dying,” Mr. Gulbransen said. “Children are being seriously injured.”

Mr. Gulbranson is one of the plaintiffs in the suit, along with Susan Auriemma, who injured her 3-year-old daughter in 2005 when backing in her driveway in Manhasset, N.Y. Three consumer advocacy groups — Kids and Cars Inc., Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, and Consumers Union — are also plaintiffs. Public Citizen, which is representing the plaintiffs, declined to comment on the Transportation Department’s announcement.

The lawsuit, to be filed with the federal Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York, asks the court to order the transportation agency to issue a final ruling within 90 days.

On average, backover accidents kill 292 people and injure 18,000 annually, according to the Transportation Department. Children under 5 years old account for 44 percent of these deaths.

In more than 70 percent of these deaths, a parent or close relative is driving when the accidentally occurs, the agency said.

The 2008 law, called the Cameron Gulbransen Kids Transportation Safety Act, stems from the death of Mr. Gulbransen’s son in Syosset, N.Y. The law required the transportation agency to revise the safety standard to expand the area that drivers must be able to see behind their vehicles and to set a three-year deadline.

But the 2011 deadline for a final ruling has been delayed four times, according to the lawsuit. A draft of the final rule sent to the White House in November 2011 was delayed and finally withdrawn from review in June, when the transportation agency said it needed more time.

The department then set a deadline for Jan. 2, 2015, which the lawsuit says would more than double the three-year timetable the law outlines. The agency said it needed more time to collect information.

“This is the fourth delay, and the longest one they’ve offered up,” Ms. Auriemma said. “It’s made me lose faith in the process of what’s supposed to happen.”

Many automakers already install rearview cameras as standard features in their vehicles. Almost 80 percent of 2013 models include a rearview camera as either an optional or standard safety feature, compared with 1 percent in 2003, according to Edmunds.com, an industry researcher.

Even more 2014 models will have the option of a rearview camera as redesigned cars come with full navigation screens.

Automakers say that it is important that rearview cameras remain optional so that consumers can choose whether to pay extra for the feature. Automakers also say they must balance safety features with competitive prices.

Other options, automakers say, include installing backup sensors that beep when a person or object is directly behind the car.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a Washington-based trade association that represents 12 automakers, said the decision to buy a rearview camera should be left to consumers.

“Consumers today are very safety savvy, and they have much information online to help them choose how best to spend their safety dollars,” said a spokesman, Wade Newton.

Automakers opposing the mandate to install rearview cameras in all new vehicles say installation could cost $2.7 billion annually and that, at $160 to $200 per vehicle, the cost will get passed on to consumers.

Bits Blog: Hollywood Director Takes On Texting While Driving

Wheels: A 1960 Cadillac Takes Center Stage at the Metropolitan Opera

Sara Krulwich/The New York Times Diana Damrau as Gilda, dying in the trunk of a 1960 Cadillac Coupe de Ville, and Zeljko Lucic as Rigoletto in the opera “Rigoletto” at the Metropolitan Opera.

In classical opera, characters tend to get around in swan boats or chariots, but a production of “Rigoletto” at New York’s Metropolitan Opera puts a 1960 Cadillac Coupe de Ville in the spotlight. A soprano who has been fatally stabbed is briefly stuffed in its trunk, and the final duet, with the soprano dying in her father’s arms, takes place at the car’s rear, framed by fins and tail lights.

Traditionally, that scene is set on a riverbank in Renaissance Italy, bu the Met’s new production of the Verdi opera, directed by Michael Mayer, transports the action to 1960 Las Vegas. The Cadillac is the real thing, bought on eBay, then painted indigo blue with metallic flecks by the Met staff and illuminated by the lighting designer, Kevin Adams, to reach the high C of automotive fantasy.

Christine Jones, the set designer, explained in an e-mail that she wanted a car with a “look and feel that suited the period” of the Rat Pack, as well as the “overall sexiness” of the production’s last act, which opens with a pole dance at a sleazy club on the Vegas outskirts.

In traditional stagings of “Rigoletto,” as well as in the new one, the title character discovers that Gilda, his innocent daughter, has been seduced and raped by a powerful man. The father hires an assassin, Sparafucile, to kill the villain.

The Met’s current version gives the Cadillac to the hit man, who plans to drive his victim’s corpse to a river and dump it. But Gilda sacrifices herself for her seducer and ends up bagged in the trunk. Popping the lid open, Rigoletto, finds his daughter dying of her wounds, with just enough breath for the finale.

As happens in opera, the Met had to settle for second choice instead of the vehicular diva it really wanted. “We originally specified a 1959 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham,” wrote Ms. Jones, only to find that “without knowing it, we had picked one of the most rare American cars that were essentially handmade in Italy.” Realizing the difficulty of snagging a Brougham, Ms. Jones turned to the Coupe de Ville, which she described as having a “very similar look without being almost impossible to find.”

The engine and most working parts were removed so that stagehands could easily move the car on casters. No other modifications were needed to soprano-size the vehicle. “Luckily, the cars of this era are long and wide,” Ms. Jones said. “There was never an issue about space for the singer. We were more concerned that Diana Damrau would not be willing to get into the trunk during her performance as Gilda,” said Ms. Jones, referring to the German soprano who has been singing the role. But as it happened, “she was excited about the idea and suggested it to Michael Mayer before he gathered the nerve to suggest it to her.”

The car’s mock Nevada license plate reads, “SPARAFUC,” a detail not necessarily visible in the opera house, Ms. Jones said, but shown in close-up in the Feb. 16 live transmission of the opera in HD, which played in movie theaters around the world. Actually, Nevada did not issue vanity plates until 1969, said John Walters, a member of that state’s branch of the Automobile License Plate Collectors Association. Still, it seemed like a realistic possibility, said Ms. Jones, who said her research had shown that other states had issued personalized plates even earlier.

And the plates seemed appropriate for Sparafucile, the killer, traditionally played as cocky and now the sharply dressed owner of a Cadillac. “They call them ‘vanity plates’ for a reason,” Ms. Jones noted.

The new “Rigoletto” will be presented at the Metropolitan Opera for six more performances from April 13 to May 1. A repeat of the HD transmission will be shown in movie theaters on March 6.