autoevolution
 

Epic Fail: GM Sent Recall Notices To Victims' Families

It's common knowledge that the 2.6 million General Motors vehicles fitted with defective ignition switches caused at least 13 fatalities, although an independent analysis hikes that figure to a minimum 74 fatally injured. However, sending recall notices to victims' families is just the worst thing GM could've done, to say the least...
Chevrolet Cobalt SS 1 photo
Photo: GM
Mind our choice of words, but this mess-up is the final nail in the coffin for those affected more or less by the 15.8 million vehicles strong General Motors safety recall saga of 2014. As expected, some of the families that lost their loved ones in ignition switch-related accidents complained to the Detroit manufacturer that it's utterly rude from GM to have sent them the recall notices.

Just think about it for a second: what's there to recall? The crashed cars barely deserve the scrapheap designation, while their respective owners tragically lost their lives onboard them. Epic fail, GM. Epic fail to say the least. If you want a more solid argument on this matter, please let us take you through one of those tragic instances.

A 16-year-old girl died 9 years ago after her Chevrolet Cobalt crashed head-on into a tree on the side of the Maryland road she was driving on. Her mourning mother didn't knew that the accident that took her daughter's life is directly connected to a faulty ignition switch. And here comes the punchline: the mother received from General Motors not one, but friggin' two recall notices the past week.

Mind you, the 16-year-old girl is only one of the officially identified 13 victims that lost their lives because of the glitchy ignition switches. But we remind you the real figure may be 74 fatally injured or higher, and that covers just the 2.6 million GM vehicles suffering from the shoddy ignition units. Unfortunately, God only knows how many people died in accidents linked to the grand total of 15,8 million GM cars affected by one safety fault or another.
If you liked the article, please follow us:  Google News icon Google News Youtube Instagram X (Twitter)
About the author: Mircea Panait
Mircea Panait profile photo

After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
Full profile

 

Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?

You will only receive our top stories