Distracted driving, Chevy sales, first female GM product development head

(Archive)

Distracted driving agenda will continue
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says he will keep distracted driving at the top of his agenda despite critics who say the department should focus on other safety issues. LaHood says the department will not be deterred by "false choices" between fighting distracted driving and addressing other safety issues. Groups such as the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety have questioned whether texting bans and restrictions on using handheld cell phones reduce crashes. The government estimates that 5,500 people were killed in 2009 in distracted-driving crashes.

-- The Associated Press

(Chevrolet)

Chevy benefits from boost in fleet sales
Small businesses have been buying more cars and trucks -- another piece of evidence the economy is on the mend. It's also evidence that folks have held onto their current models so long during the economic downturn that they are in need of updating aging fleets. Chevrolet said last week that sales to small business customers have increased for three consecutive months. In the fourth quarter 2010, Chevrolet dealers recorded a 36 percent increase in small business sales, almost three times the sales increase for the industry as a whole.

-- The Associated Press

Mary Barra poses with a 2011 Chevrolet Cruze at GM World Headquarters in Detroit. (General Motors)

GM names first woman as product development head
General Motors has named Mary Barra head of global product development, making her the first woman to hold the position at GM or any Detroit automaker. In Barra, GM is making a seasoned 49-year-old electric engineer and mother of two -- who earned an engineering degree years ago while working on an assembly line in Pontiac, Mich. -- in charge of one of the automaker's most important functions: leading development of future cars and trucks. While GM has had women in senior management positions for more than a decade, they generally have been in such areas as human resources, marketing or other positions not directly responsible for designing and manufacturing vehicles.