As of June 15, the number of General Motors approved ignition switch death compensation claims had risen to 114 from 111 a week prior.

These wrongful death claims stem from a worldwide recall of GM vehicles because of a faulty ignition switch defect that causes the ignition key to suddenly move from “on” to “accessory” or “off” without warning. A federal investigation into the GM ignition switch defect soon followed the recall and the numerous reports of injury and death.

In mid-September, the GM ignition switch compensation fund had only approved 19 claims, which increased to 36 by December and 42 in January. The number of approved ignition switch death claims slowly climbed and finally reached 100 last month.

GM Compensation Fund Claims Approval

The GM ignition switch victim compensation fund is being overseen by D.C. attorney Kenneth Feinberg. According to the latest report from the GM compensation fund, 4,342 claims have been received, which includes 289 Category One injury claims (incidents that caused a victim’s quadriplegia, paraplegia, double amputation, permanent brain damage or pervasive burns) and 474 death claims.

The remaining 3,579 claims submitted to the ignition switch compensation fund are “Category Two” injury claims, in which a victim required hospitalization within 48 hours of an accident caused by the GM ignition switch defect. These numbers have not changed for several weeks, according to reports.

Of the claims received, 343 claims have been determined to be eligible for compensation, which includes 114 death claims, 13 Category One injury claims, and 216 Category Two injury claims.

However, according to the GM compensation funds claims resolution program, 2,640 of the claims received have been tagged as ineligible. Another 1,215 have been categorized as deficient, 109 are currently under review, and 35 injury and death claims have been submitted lacking documentation.

General Motors has estimated that if the automaker were to compensate all alleged victims of the ignition switch defect, then the final price for the compensation fund would hover somewhere around $400 million to $600 million.

GM Ignition Switch Failure

Since the ignition switch failure came to light, GM has recalled 2.6 million vehicles — 2.2 million from the United States alone — because of the dangerous GM ignition switch defect. The types of GM vehicles recalled include:

• 2003-2007 Saturn Ion
• 2007-2010 Saturn Sky
• 2005-2011 Chevrolet HHR
• 2006-2010 Pontiac Solstice
• 2005-10 Chevrolet Cobalt
• Pontiac G5

When a GM car features the ignition switch defect the switch can move from “on” to “accessory” or “off” without warning, causing the car to lose power and subsequently make it impossible for the driver to steer the car. This ignition switch defect also shuts off safety features including airbags.