The General Motors engineer at the centre of the ongoing ignition switch recall enquiry reportedly told Congressional investigators he had forgotten about the design changes he signed off without a new part number.
The New York Times said Raymond DeGiorgio, 61, who GM suspended with pay in April, had worked at the automaker since 1991 and was a lead design engineer for ignition switches for a variety of models.
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There have been reports concerns with the switch were raised even before cars fitted with them were launched – continuing soon after sales began – because it could be turned off by additional weight on the key ring or inadvertent bumping, stopping the engine and disabling items such as power steering and airbags.
DeGiorgio signed off design changes in April 2006, authorising supplier Delphi to make improvements to the switch at its manufacturing plant in Mexico, the Times said.
The change was primarily a longer detent pin and stronger spring, increasing the force required to turn the switch to off.
But DeGeorgio denied this in the deposition last year in the lawsuit brought by the family of a Georgia woman who died in a 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt, the paper said.
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By GlobalData“I don’t ever recall authorising such a change,” DeGeorgio reportedly said in a sworn deposition in April 2013.
Questioned by House investigators, he said he had forgotten about the fix involving a stronger spring in the mechanism that determines how much force is needed to turn the key because it was one of a package of changes and because it was seven years before the deposition, sources familiar with the questioning told the New York Times.
A source involved in the case told the paper the change DeGeorgio approved covered the spring and a printed circuit board which was causing some Saturn Ion models not to start.
“He definitely said he was more focused on electrical problems,” the staff member, who described DeGiorgio as “very emotional at times”, was quoted as saying.
The paper said DeGiorgio’s actions might not have come to light without an independent investigation by a Florida engineer, Mark Hood, who was retained by the family of the Georgia crash victim.
Hood discovered that switches in Cobalts made after 2006 were significantly stronger than ones found in pre-2006 cars.
During the deposition last year, Lance Cooper, lawyer for the victim’s family, asked DeGeorgio: “So if any such change is made, it was made without your knowledge and authorisation?”
“That is correct,” DeGiorgio replied.
The NYT said the family had asked that their case against GM be reopened on the grounds that DeGiorgio possibly committed perjury because it appeared that he gave a false answer in the 2013 deposition.
GM CEO Mary Barra acknowledged under questioning by lawmakers on 2 April DeGiorgio might have lied during his deposition, the report noted.
“You know he lied under oath,” said Senator Claire McCaskill, a Democrat from Missouri.
“The data that’s been put in front of me indicates that but I’m waiting for the full investigation,” Barra replied.
The paper said GM suspended DeGiorgio with pay, along with his supervisor Gary Altman, eight days later on 10 April. House investigators have also interviewed Altman.
DeGiorgio has not returned telephone calls made by the New York Times to his home.
The paper said interviews by House investigators are often a preliminary step to calling witnesses for a public hearing, although the House committee undertaking the investigation, Energy and Commerce, has not scheduled a hearing.
