Dallas, Texas 07/24/2014 (FINANCIALSTRENDS) – General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) issues with safety regulations on its ignition switches became more contentious. The company has since provided details of 19 crashes which were fatal, to regulators. The crashes involved the three car models which the company had recalled earlier in the year due to faulty ignition systems.
An ex-employee of Delphi, Steve Smith who was the father of Aubrey Williams who died in a December 2013 in a 2006 Chevrolet Cobalt had filed a lawsuit against General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) for the death, in March. Delphi Automotive supplied the components of the ignition switch seen to be the cause of the defect in the Cobalt.
The list of vehicles which were involved in the 19 crashes were – the Cobalt, Chevrolet HHR as well as the Saturn Ion. Gm had already issued notices of recall of these models as early as February this year.
The details of the crash were provided to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The organization has since published the details of the 19 crashes on the Early Warning Reporting database. The coverage of the crashes dates back to 2009.
Officially the website makes no mention of the crash victim names or the cause of the crash to be the ignition switch. It instead lists the cause as ‘reported components.’
General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) had also recalled Cobalt, HHR as well as Ion as part of the 2.6 million cars it recalled due to instances of accidents due to faulty ignition switches. The issue was the ignition switches were cutting off electrical power to three different components – engine, power steering as well as air bags.
GM has also shared that there were 14 cases of fatal crashes and 15 deaths with the Cobalt model for the period 1005-09. Deaths due to 2007 HHR were three, while Ion saw 2 crashes in 2005-06.