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Deaths from Faulty GM Ignition Switch Could Be Much Higher
Fatalities involving some of the 1.6 million cars listed in the General Motors Co. ignition switch recall are far higher than reported, the Center for Auto Safety points out.
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Fatalities involving some of the 1.6 million cars listed in the General Motors Co. ignition switch recall are far higher than reported, the Center for Auto Safety points out.
GM has reported 12 fatalities linked to the flawed ignition switch. The switch can be jogged out of the "on" position by the driver's knee or a too-heavy keychain. If that happens, the car's airbags won't deploy in a subsequent crash.
CAS says government crash data reveal a sharp increase to 303 deaths of front-seat occupants of recalled Chevrolet Cobalt and Saturn Ion cars in which the airbag failed to deploy in a non-rear impact crash.
The statistic infers but doesn't prove a connection between the faulty ignition switch and the non-deployments. GM notes that meaningful conclusions are impossible without close analysis of the raw data CAS cites.
But in a letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, CAS says the spike in non-deployments should have triggered an NHTSA investigation that might have uncovered the ignition switch problem sooner.
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