General Motors CEO Mary Barra told senators she would let her own son drive one of the company’s recalled cars, “if he only had the ignition key.”
Accidents caused by faulty ignition switches in GM cars have killed at least 13 people, most of them young. Families of some victims said the count is higher. Members of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation subcommittee accused the company of criminal misconduct and of trying to cover up the dangerous flaw: Items on a key ring could put the ignition into accessory mode, disabling air bags and power steering and causing the car to stall.
Senators told Barra to tell GM customers not to drive any of the 2.6 million cars subject to recall until they have been repaired. The company said the cars are safe if driven with only a key in the ignition.
Barra said an internal GM investigation would be ready in 45 to 60 days, and that it would answer many of the panel’s questions. She also said the culture at GM, under her leadership, is more focused on safety than it was in the past. She said she did not yet know the details of the problem.
Know Nothing
“You don’t know anything about anything,” said Barbara Boxer (D-Calif). “If this is the new GM leadership, it’s pretty lacking.”
Many senators focused on the ignition switch, namely how GM approved a replacement in 2006 but never changed the part number. Failing to change the part number makes the part harder to track. Anyone investigating the cars wouldn’t know why earlier switches were failing at a higher rate than later ones.
While Barra called the failure to change the part number “unacceptable,” several members of the panel implied that it was done intentionally by a person or group within the company, and raised the possibility the action could constitute a criminal violation.
“I don’t see this as anything but criminal,” insisted Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), a former prosecutor.
GM announced Tuesday that it has retained Kenneth Feinberg to “evaluate options in its response to families of accident victims whose vehicles are being recalled for possible ignition switch defects,” it said in a statement. Feinberg handled compensation issues after the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the Boston Marathon Bombing last year, and 9/11.
Members of the committee pressed Barra to fire those responsible both for keeping the same part number and for the slow recall. The company knew of ignition switch problems in Chevrolet Cobalts, Saturn Ions, and other models in 2001.
Recalls After a Decade
But recalls began only in February this year. GM announced an additional recall of 1.3 million cars with potential steering problems Monday.
According to the announcement, there are “1.3 million vehicles in the U.S. that may experience a sudden loss of electric power steering assist.” It said the loss of power steering could increase the risk of a crash; quite an understatement. Models include Cobalts, Saturn IONs, Malibus, and others.
“We are going after every car that might have this problem, and we are going to make it right,” said Jeff Boyer, vice president, GM Global Vehicle Safety in a statement. The statement might have been more convincing to the senators if it had been issued in 2001 or the 13 years since.
Criminal Liability
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) told Barra that the more he hears and sees about GM, “the more convinced I am that GM has a real exposure to criminal liability. I think it’s likely and appropriate that GM will face prosecution.”
Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate who wrote “Unsafe at Any Speed” about dangerous cars, including GM cars, nearly 50 years ago, said it was clear that GM has a “vertical and horizontal bureaucracy is a huge mass of ambiguity,” according to CNBC.
He said if Barra was first notified of the problem Jan. 31, as she said, yet is still unable to tell Congress the whole story, it shows that there is no clear line of responsibility from designers to executives. He said she should appoint an independent group of engineers who report to her directly.
Barra has been CEO of GM since Jan. 15.
Highway Safety Board
David J. Friedman, acting administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NTSA) was also set to testify. Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) asked him in an open letter why the agency did not investigate the problems despite hundreds of complaints of cars turning off unexpectedly.
Yet, the “Office of Defects Investigation declined to move forward in both 2007 and 2010 on any vehicle recall recommendation,” wrote Heller. Friedman has been at NTSA less than year. An engineer, he was previously a clean fuel advocate at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
He said he was not aware he could demand to see the documents of any secret settlements GM had made with accident victims or their survivors.
The Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation of GM’s handling of the recall. Barra promised the company will cooperate with the probe.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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