Heba Elsherif  |  May 22, 2017

Category: Consumer News

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ignition-switch-defectGeneral Motors Company, commonly known as GM, is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan. They manufacture, design, distribute, and market motor vehicles, motor vehicle parts, and sell financial services.

The automotive giant, however, has been currently involved in a dangerous GM ignition switch defect that has affected some 2.5 million vehicles. These include: all 2005- 2010 Chevrolet Cobalt, 2007-2010 Pontiac G5, 2003-2007 Saturn Ion, 2006-2011 Chevrolet HHR, 2006-2010 Pontiac Solstice, and the 2007- 2010 Saturn Sky vehicles. Other vehicle types have been reported to be a part of the ignition switch defect as well.

With the ignition switch defect, the malfunction causes the vehicle to shut down and the switch to mistakenly move to the “off” position. Alleged causes iterate that the ignition switch defect may be a result of extra weight placed on the ignition switch. Because of the shutoff, airbags are also kept from deploying during an accident.

In 2014, GM issued a recall of specific vehicles to suffer from the alleged ignition switch defect, alleging that the company had discovered the flaw . They had alerted that the dangerous flaw causes the vehicles key ignition switch to turn off, which therefore causes the vehicle’s engine to turn off and fails to deploy airbags whenever it is in an accident.

The company has recalled 2.6 million cars  to replace the ignition switch defect. Allegedly, to fix the ignition switch defect, it doesn’t cost much ─ roughly a few dollars to produce and install replacement parts.

According to a review by watchdog group The Center for Auto Safety, reports stated that roughly 300 deaths have been due and linked to the ignition switch defect. Additionally, GM had created a GM Ignition Compensation Fund in May 2015, to pay out those individuals who had been involved in related vehicle accidents because of the GM ignition switch. Allegedly, however, only 100 people had submitted the confirmed death claims.

According to the Wall Street Journal, documents were released that allegedly report GM’s knowledge of the ignition switch defect in 2001. The motor corporation opted to settle that allegation and paid $900 million to the Department of Justice in September 2015.

The automotive giant has also paid nearly $875 dollars to settle allege claims related to the ignition switch defect. In more recent allegations and lawsuits filed against the automotive giant, GM’s appeal to block many ignition switch lawsuits was denied by the Supreme Court on Monday.

According to the justices, the automaker’s 2009 bankruptcy filing does not safeguard it from further liability accusations. They said that GM knew of the ignition switch defect for several years before the bankruptcy, and because of that, they can be held responsible for deaths and injuries incurred because of related motor vehicle accidents.

In general, GM ignition switch injury lawsuits are filed individually by each plaintiff and are not class actions.

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