General Motors Settles With California for $5.75M

Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, displays a GM ignition switch similar to those linked to 13 deaths and dozens of crashes of General Motors small cars like the Chevy Cobalt, during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on April 1, 2014. J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—General Motors Co. has agreed to a $5.75 million settlement with California regarding false statements the company made to investors about problems with its deadly ignition switches, state officials announced Friday.

The faulty ignition switches led to at least 124 fatalities and 274 injuries nationwide. The defect also resulted in the recall of more than nine million vehicles in 2014—one of the biggest recalls in the nation’s history—from the largest U.S. automaker because the switches sometimes caused the sudden termination of electrical systems, including power steering and power brakes.