Photo: Chevrolet
House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Fred Upton announced that the committee has opened an investigation into GM’s ignition switch recall, which has been linked to 31 crashes and 13 fatalities.
The Republican, who sponsored and passed the Treat Act that required manufacturers to report potential defects to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in five business days, said the committee plans “to seek detailed information from both NHTSA and GM”, with a hearing to be held in the coming weeks.
“Did the company or regulators miss something that could have flagged these problems sooner? If the answer is yes, we must learn how and why this happened, and then determine whether this system of reporting and analyzing complaints that Congress created to save lives is being implemented and working as the law intended. Americans deserve to have the peace of mind that they are safe behind the wheel,” Upton said in a statement.
Announced in mid-February, the initial ignition switch recall included more than 600,000 units of the 2005-2007 Chevrolet Cobalt and 2007 Pontiac G5. Updated about a week later, the call back increased to more than 1.5 million vehicles and extended to include 2003-2007 Saturn Ion, 2006-2007 Chevrolet HHR, 2006-2007 Pontiac Solstice, 2006-2007 Saturn Sky, the European 2007 Opel GT and the Canadian-market 2005-2006 Pontiac Pursuit.
According to the NHTSA, in the affected vehicles “the weight on the key ring and/or road conditions or some other jarring event may cause the ignition switch to move out of the run position, turning off the engine. If the key is not in the run position, the air bags may not deploy if the vehicle is involved in a crash, increasing the risk of injury.”
Last week, the agency revealed it is already running a separate investigation and submitted 27-page query to General Motors. The questionnaire includes no less than 107 questions and requests details about each of the crashes linked to the ignition switch issue, correspondence from any employee involved in efforts to investigate the failures, engineering modifications proposed and not implemented in the respective vehicles and many more. GM must responds to NHTSA’s special order by April 3.
The Detroit-based manufacturer said it will fully cooperate with both the NHTSA and the Committee. “We welcome the opportunity to help both parties have a full understanding of the facts,” Alan Adler, GM spokesperson on legal and recall topics told Autoblog.
“Did the company or regulators miss something that could have flagged these problems sooner? If the answer is yes, we must learn how and why this happened, and then determine whether this system of reporting and analyzing complaints that Congress created to save lives is being implemented and working as the law intended. Americans deserve to have the peace of mind that they are safe behind the wheel,” Upton said in a statement.
Announced in mid-February, the initial ignition switch recall included more than 600,000 units of the 2005-2007 Chevrolet Cobalt and 2007 Pontiac G5. Updated about a week later, the call back increased to more than 1.5 million vehicles and extended to include 2003-2007 Saturn Ion, 2006-2007 Chevrolet HHR, 2006-2007 Pontiac Solstice, 2006-2007 Saturn Sky, the European 2007 Opel GT and the Canadian-market 2005-2006 Pontiac Pursuit.
According to the NHTSA, in the affected vehicles “the weight on the key ring and/or road conditions or some other jarring event may cause the ignition switch to move out of the run position, turning off the engine. If the key is not in the run position, the air bags may not deploy if the vehicle is involved in a crash, increasing the risk of injury.”
Last week, the agency revealed it is already running a separate investigation and submitted 27-page query to General Motors. The questionnaire includes no less than 107 questions and requests details about each of the crashes linked to the ignition switch issue, correspondence from any employee involved in efforts to investigate the failures, engineering modifications proposed and not implemented in the respective vehicles and many more. GM must responds to NHTSA’s special order by April 3.
The Detroit-based manufacturer said it will fully cooperate with both the NHTSA and the Committee. “We welcome the opportunity to help both parties have a full understanding of the facts,” Alan Adler, GM spokesperson on legal and recall topics told Autoblog.
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