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GM Lied to Federal Authorities About Ignition-Related Fatal Accidents

Another day, another ignition switch headline to make you get cold feet about driving a vehicle designed and assembled by GM. That's seems to be the norm these days and a new analysis further demonstrates that General Motors bigwigs kept silent about fatal crashes related to the glitchy switches.
GM ignition switch 1 photo
Photo: GM
If you're new to the subject, let's start with a brief reminder of the ignition scandal. Over 2.6 million older General Motors automobiles, including the Chevy Cobalt and Saturn Ion, have been fitted with sub-standard ignition switches that suffer from insufficient torque resistance. If you run over a pothole or drive on a cobblestone road, the jarring movement may move the key to the "off" position, stopping the engine and disabling the airbags as well. To date, investigators connected the death of 13 people and many more injured to the previously mentioned fault.

As if that wasn't enough, a report from a little while back informs that General Motors sent recall notices to victims' families. Those families that lost their loved ones in crashes that totaled the vehicles in question. Epic fail aside, the automaker's recall tally for 2014 sits at just over 28 million faulty vehicles. Needless to say, the worrying facts we just presented couldn't be ignored by authorities. Many federal investigators are trying to prove that higher-ups knew about the potentially deadly ignition switches as far back as the early 2000s, but shushed about it like it was nothing. Even Doug Parks, current GM VP and former Chevrolet Cobalt chief engineer, knew about the problem since 2005 according to an e-mail.

A recent independent investigation made by the New York Times demonstrated yet again that several executives knew about the potential consequences but wished to keep quiet about it in front of the general public and authorities too. That was the era just before the 2008 bailout, thus General Motors was a bit low on cash and maybe acted this way in order to cut costs. 4 of 13 death inquiries have been obtained by the previously mentioned publication, and what the papers uncovered just beggars belief.

One case centers around a front collision with a tree, resulting in the death of the front seat passenger. The lady driver of the Saturn Ion in question pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide because investigators discovered traces of Xanax in her system. However, General Motors' didn't even bother to dig for evidence that could've cleared the driver from the heavy burden on her shoulders, even though the front passenger airbags haven't deployed on impact. Moreover, execs told regulators that information was insufficient to make a factual and rigorous assessment of the situation.

Sounds like a blatant lie to us, alright. The second case we deem necessary to highlight involves a crash that happened in December 2009 in Tennessee. A 25-year old woman lost her life on this occasion, but General Motors decided not to reveal whether it had investigated into the circumstances of the fatal accident. In addition to that cocky attitude, a GM spokesperson declared that any data related to the case would not be shared with anyone. Don't know about you, but GM heads will roll without question.

Thankfully, two U.S. Senators are already working on that. The "Hide No Harm Act" is the child of Richard Bluementhal and Bob Casey and it's basically a bill that if it becomes law, authorities would be able to punish these lying bastards with up to 5 years in prison for hiding safety defects from consumers.

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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.
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