The deadly flaws in the ignition switches have kept General Motors' customers and regulators dumbfounded for years. This is the claim of the plaintiffs that caused GM to go back in court and defend themselves for the second time.
The new trial of General Motors is focusing on the wreckage that happened in New Orleans Bridge in 2014. Dionne Spain and Lawrence Barthelemy claimed that a defective switch has prevented Spain's 2007 Saturn Sky from avoiding a collision with multiple cars, Detroit News reported.
Randall Jackson, the plaintiff's lawyer, said the company broke its promise. He added that a car is a promise of safe transportation but the company failed to provide that one. As reported by The Malay Online, Mike Brock, the company's lawyer argued that even the police cruiser that responded to the accident was rear-ended by an ambulance near the site.
In 2014, GM had already recalled millions of units that had a flaw in the ignition switch. This flaw shuts off the engine and disables the power steering and brakes which in turn prevents the airbags from deploying. Despite the admission, GM still insists that the accident is not related to the defective switches.
This acknowledgement is a clear indication that GM knows about that problem and the evidence will show that the company secretly redesigned the switches without informing the public of it. Jackson added that this is a grand failure of GM, according to recoder.
US District Judge Jesse M. Furman said these cases are important to identify the legal boundaries as 1,700 injuries and deaths remain to be solved. He added that a substantial amount of work is still needed. GM, however, has announced that it reached a settlement of $275 million to settle cases of injuries and death and another $300 million for class-action shareholders' suits last September.
