Transatlantic cable
May 2014
31
Automotive
Investigators want to know why General
Motors delayed action for years on
complaints about a problematic ignition switch
In the job only since 14
th
January, General Motors CEO Mary
Barra said in March that she personally was leading e orts to
address a broad vehicle recall that has mushroomed into GM’s
biggest crisis since it came out of bankruptcy in July 2009.
The company is recalling Chevrolet Cobalts of the model years
2005 to 2007, Saturn Ions from 2003-2007, and several other cars
over concerns about a faulty ignition switch that can disable
power steering and impede the deployment of air bags.
Defective switches have been linked to 31 crashes involving the
GM vehicles, which resulted in 12 deaths.
Todd Spangler of the
Detroit Free Press
reported from
Washington that, according to a
Free Press
review of documents
led with the National Highway Tra c Safety Administration
(NHTSA), at least ve of those deaths occurred in accidents that
happened before GM’s emergence from bankruptcy.
Information requested of GM by federal regulators shows that
additional analysis done early this year – incorporating reports
of ignition switch problems dating back to 2001 – led to the
addition of several models to the recall, which now extends to
1.37 million vehicles in the US and 1.6 million worldwide (“Newly
Released GM Records Show Ignition Problems Surfaced as Early
as 2001,” 13
th
March)
The internal analysis was made public as auto safety experts
urged GM to waive the bankruptcy-related legal immunity that
protects it from lawsuits arising from accidents before July 2009.
Unless the company elects to forgo that defence to prior claims,
many potential lawsuits could be precluded, even if a driver or
passenger died. Federal regulators, congressional investigators,
and the US Justice Department have launched probes into why
it took so long for GM to initiate the recalls.
As early as 2007, regulators had informed the company of a
possible problem with the ignition switch. Now, the disclosure
that it had received reports of ignition switch problems
dating back to 2001 potentially raises deeper questions about
the delay.
According to the
Free Press
, one such report, from 2003,
“documented an instance in which the service technician
observed a stall while driving” and said the weight of the key
chain had worn out the ignition switch.
In 2004, an inquiry was not pursued, the company said, “after
consideration of the lead time required, cost and e ectiveness
[of solutions].”
The
Free Press
reported that Clarence Ditlow, who runs
the Center for Auto Safety, a private watchdog group in
Washington, and Joan Claybrook, a former head of NHTSA,
on 12
th
March sent a letter to Ms Barra asking that the
company set up a $1 billion fund “to cover losses of victims
and families of safety defects whose claims have been
extinguished by the bankruptcy or barred by statutes of
repose or limitations.”
