General Motors knew of a problem with ignition switches in some of its vehicles for 10 years before it finally recalled the cars, according to a document released this week.
A first incident of a Chevrolet Cobalt losing engine power when the ignition switch moved from the ‘run’ position when the driver inadvertently contacted the key or steering column occurred in 2004 just as the the then-new 2005 model was being launched. An engineering enquiry considered various solutions but none was implemented due to “the lead time required, cost and effectiveness”.
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Further field reports in 2005 led to GM considering a switch redesign. “That proposal was initially approved, but later canceled,” the GM report said, with no further explanation.
Instead, GM issued a service bulletin to dealers offering advice to customers and advising of minor changes to the key ring and the availability of a service part.
The switch assembly was, however, modified at GM’s request by supplier Delphi at some time during the 2007 model year and again during 2009.
In 2007, during a meeting, NHTSA informed GM employees attending of a fatal crash in 2005 during which the airbags did not deploy and, by the end of 2007, GM had identified 10 similar crashes.
Ongoing investigations continued until the end of last year, when GM concluded a recall was necessary and notified NHTSA.
General Motors North America president Alan Batey last night admitted the automaker’s nearly decade-long investigation of the defect “was not as robust as it should have been.”
According to the New York Times, GM’s chronological report angered consumer advocates. Under federal regulations, once a manufacturer is aware of a safety problem it must, within five business days, inform the agency of its plan for a recall or face a civil fine. The maximum penalty is US$35m.
“It just shows with utter clarity there should have been a recall in 2006 or 2007,” Clarence Ditlow, the executive director of the nonprofit Center for Auto Safety, told the paper. “The only question is how many people died or were injured because there wasn’t an earlier recall?”
According to the NYT, the automaker told the safety agency, it had had trouble pinning down the problem because many of the crashes involved “violent off-road impacts occurring under widely varying circumstances”.
The paper noted that NHTSA had spotted the problem as far back as 2007. An investigator who conducted a special crash investigation for the safety agency that year involving a fatal crash in Wisconsin concluded that “the movement of the ignition switch just prior to the impact” turned off the engine, which might have prevented the air bags from deploying. He also noted the 2005 technical service bulletin about the ignition being accidentally turned off.
Although that was the second example the agency had of a frontal crash without the air bags deploying, it never started an investigation to pursue a recall, the New York Times said.
“The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration learned of the problem in 2007, but ignored its duty to protect the public,” Joan Claybrook, who headed the agency from 1977-81, told the paper by email.
“General Motors should be criminally prosecuted for covering up this safety defect, and NHTSA should replace the staff that failed to do its job.”
