It may be a new year, but the issue of defective GM ignition switches continues to be a problem as the number of injury or death reports rises to 49.

As of now, the GM ignition switch defect compensation fund administrators have approved 49 death claims out of 311 submissions; approximately 49 of the claims were declared ineligible and the remaining are being evaluated. Additionally, seven claims out of 207 serious injury reports have been approved for the fund, but an additional 37 claims have been rejected; 65 lesser injury claims have been approached out of 2,300 submissions.

This calculation process is an updated version of when it was established when the GM ignition switch recall was first announced, which only counted front-end collisions. The updated calculation has been expanded to include the driver and passengers, as well as any vehicles in a collision related to the defective GM ignition switches.

GM representatives believe that approximately 99 percent of GM vehicle owners have been notified of the recall, with the only exceptions being customers who have not read the recall notification letter. The new deadline for affected GM vehicle owners to submit their claims to the compensation fund that GM set up for ignition switch settlements passed on Jan. 31, 2015. GM representatives warn that even after all the claims are submitted, the paperwork will take months to process.

GM Ignition Switch Defect Repairs

As of Jan. 15, 2015, General Motors announced that it has so far repaired 1.26 million vehicles, which is 64.8 percent of the 1.95 million defective GM cars.

GM went on to say that if the cars from Canada and Mexico were included, then the number of repaired cars would go up to 1.51 million, which is 64.2 percent of the total amount of 2.35 million recalled North American vehicles. Sources say that the initial statistics were higher, but GM officials determined that a portion of these cars had been scrapped or were no longer in service.

Overview of GM Recall

While the GM ignition recall had begun a little over a year ago, it has reportedly been a problem for General Motors for over a decade.

The GM recall concerns the major design flaw of the ignition switches on certain GM vehicles. Customers have reportedly been involved in serious or fatal car crashes due to the key suddenly turning into the off position in the ignition slot, which causes the vehicle’s engine and safety features to suddenly shut down. Essentially, the defective ignition switch causes the cars to suddenly stop on the road, due to not being able to handle the weight of the key chains or other attachments.

Reportedly, GM had known about this ignition switch defect since 2001 during the development of the Saturn Ion, and it had appeared again in 2004 after the design plans were finalized for the Chevrolet Cobalt. Since the discovery of the defective ignition switches, GM has acquired mass criticism from the public for failing to warn their customers in a timely manner. For years, GM consumers had been putting their lives in danger by driving defective vehicles, without knowing that the fatal trigger was something as simple as the weight of their key chains.

GM was fined $35 million by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for failing to report a fault in their vehicles within the maximum of five business days, as federal law requires. Additionally, the Justice Department began its own investigation into the company and numerous consumers began filing GM ignition switch lawsuits against the company.