General Motors has filed 2,004 reports on injuries and deaths resulting from accidents in its cars that have been recalled for ignition switch-related defects, a media report, citing the Center for Auto Safety, said.
According to Bloomberg News, the Washington DC-based advocacy group, citing research of the carmaker’s reports to regulators, has urged GM adviser Kenneth Feinberg (a lawyer hired by GM to advise it on helping victims of accidents tied to the defect) to investigate each incident to determine whether the ignition switch defect played a role in it.
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“The defective ignition switch in the recalled Delta platform vehicles goes beyond the airbag failing to deploy,” said the centre of the over 2.2m cars recalled for switch replacement. “The vehicle loses the electric power steering and power brakes, which can lead to loss of control resulting in a crash.”
All of the ignition switch victims must be found before they can be compensated, the safety group said in the letter sent to Feinberg. Bloomberg noted the letter came the same week as a report by Anton Valukas, hired by GM to probe its handling of the defect, is due.
The centre wrote to Valukas on 29 May, asking him to consider a number of points related to the recall investigation and he acknowledged the communication.
According to Bloomberg News, the centre said some victims weren’t counted by GM. It cited the death of Brooke Melton after she lost control of the car she was driving. GM hadn’t included her in its list of 13 ignition deaths, even though the lawyer handling the case, which GM settled, has tied Melton’s accident to the defect, it said.
The report said an earlier analysis by the Center for Auto Safety reported as many as 303 deaths tied to air bags not deploying in 2005-07 Chevrolet Cobalt and 2003-07 Saturn Ion cars. But that analysis was criticised by both GM and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as inconclusive.
The study, based on data in the US Fatality Analysis Reporting System, couldn’t determine whether the incidents were all related to the ignition switch defect, the company and regulators said in March. The database doesn’t code accidents precisely enough to draw such a conclusion, they said.
