GM faces a lawsuit filed on behalf of 658 people who it is alleged either died or were injured due to the automaker’s ignition switch defect.
The plaintiffs are suing for wrongful death or injury in accidents that occurred after GM emerged from bankruptcy in July 2009.
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“At any given moment, an ignition switch in a wide variety of General Motors vehicles could fail, killing or maiming countless individuals,” according to the complaint.
The lawsuit was filed in Manhattan federal court, where dozens of cases against GM over the switch recall have been consolidated. It names a total of 658 plaintiffs, including 29 who are bringing claims on behalf of people who died.
This year, GM has recalled nearly 15m vehicles worldwide over potentially defective ignition switches. GM has set up a program, run by lawyer Kenneth Feinberg, to compensate victims of crashes.
In a video clip that featured on the FastLane blog earlier this week, General Motors CEO Mary Barra defended the approach the company is taking to a record number of product recalls.
“We are bringing greater rigor and a sense of discipline to our analysis and our decision making,” Barra says on the video (below, also on YouTube).
