It is about how no one gives a shit about any of us regular folks and how money, profits are the real god worshipped by our society.
It is about General Motors (GM), the same GM that earned 3.8 Billion dollars in the year 2013 -CLICK HERE, and is the 7th largest Corporation in America.
It is the GM that declared bankruptcy in 2009, and then on July 10, 2009, General Motors emerged from government backed Chapter 11 reorganization after an initial filing on June 8, 2009.[13][14]
On December 10, 2013, the U.S. Treasury sold the last of its GM stock bringing an end to the controversial government ownership of the car company.
The final cost of the GM bailout cost the U. S. taxpayer $12 billion ($10.5 billion for General Motors and $1.5 billion for former GM financing GMAC, now known as Ally).
You see GM was too big to be allowed to fail as a Company and so it was bailed out of Bankruptcy by the taxpayers of the United States, even though its financial failure was caused by the Company's decades of mismanagement.
But what kind of company did the government and taxpayers save?
One that waited a decade to recall millions of cars with a lethal defect that would shut down engines without warning.
One that chose not to replace the defective part when it was first detected, a faulty spring component in the ignition switch, which would have cost 59 cents to replace when it was first detected.
GM had a "culture of cover up," said Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, on Wednesday at a congressional hearing featuring embattled GM CEO Mary Barra.
McCaskill, a former prosecutor, said an engineer for the company had "repeatedly lied" when he didn't admit in a deposition that he had changed the faulty ignition switch, but not the part number, clearly showing that GM was trying to cover up its previous failure to fix the bad part.
McCaskill further stated that “The facts are pretty clear. You don’t need an investigation to understand that they had a defective switch and someone at GM in the engineering department changed that faulty switch to a newly designed, non defective switch and didn’t change the part number.”
“There is no reason to keep the same part-number unless you’re trying to hide the fact that you’ve got a defective switch out there that in fact ended up killing a number of people on our highways,” McCaskill concluded.
GM's behavior "goes beyond unacceptable," Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) said on Wednesday. "I believe this is criminal," she said.
Now, due to the pressure put on GM by a small group of families, whose relatives are 13 victims of a fatal GM automobile defect in an ignition switch, that was known to GM for at least the last 10 years, there is a mounting uproar about how GM deliberately hid this defect from the public "because it was too expensive for them to recall the affected cars for repairs".
They have only gone public at this time about this defect in their automobiles due to the bad publicity generated by the victims families, and not because of any accountability concerns that the Company suddenly feels.
GM has also officially confirmed that the"too expensive" repair cost is 59 cents per car to fix the defective ignition switch.
GM only admits to 13 deaths caused by this ignition defect, but the amount of people killed is expected to rise much higher as investigators from government agencies conduct a comprehensive search of fatalities linked to the affected GM model cars.
If you drive a car made by GM or know anyone who does, please share this as you may save your/their life. Call your local GM dealer, even if your car model is not yet mentioned as there is no way to be certain that GM is including publicly all the actual affected models.
Apparently the 59 cents per car repair fix cost was considered much too expensive for GM, although they made over 13.3 billion dollars in 2013, to avoid killing human beings who drive their death trap cars.
Even now, while millions of people drive these ticking time bomb cars with the defective ignitions, essentially automobiles that are deathtraps, GM says that repairs to these cars will take until next October.
So rather than expedite this repair process, or better yet tell people to STOP driving these cars, GM continues to ignore the lives of human beings who are in danger of being killed by the cars fatal defect.
Profit clearly more important to GM, a Company too big to fail but too big to care about it deliberately deciding to kill numerous innocent human beings, because 59 cents a car repairs is too much money for them to spend, and telling people to stop driving these automobiles, well that wouldn't be "cost effective" either.
There appears to be no wiggle room for GM on this issue as to their being legally guilty of murder. They consciously made a business decision based on profits over saving human lives. But they will wiggle their way out of this, as so many previous Corporations have done.
And so as the usual "script' in these cases unfolds, the current GM CEO Mary Barra blames this all on former GM executives, and that of course she knew nothing about any of this.
We know how this story will end. GM will pay money to the families who were murdered by them, Congress will seek all the publicity that they can get to enhance their political status from this, and no one will ever go to jail from GM for murdering at least 13 people and then hiding what they did.
GM has so far linked 13 deaths and 31 crashes to the switches, which can inadvertently be moved out of position, potentially disabling the air bags.
GM hasn’t publicly named the 13 victims but after an exhaustive search on online, I am able to name some below during this blog post. These are victims families who have gone public with their facts, but have not been discussed very much by the mainstream media.
Unlike you and me, who would be sentenced to prison for life, GM and Company's such as GM, always manage to escape prosecution, especially for killing innocent people.
General Motors should be seen as no different than other murderers, killers of innocent people.
GM represents the classic arrogant Corporate Culture credo and that of our very own legal system which are designed to use their power to detach themselves from accountability, by not providing justice to victims.
Instead, these systems are in the business of erasing the lives of human beings who lived, and were killed by injustices. Sadly, that is the way it is, the way it will always be.
Let's put human faces on the victims and their families whose lives were ended by their being murdered by GM.
Amber's 2005 death was the first linked to an ignition switch problem that's triggered a massive recall of General Motors vehicles, says that says through a Face Book Group called "GM Recall Survivors"- CLICK HERE TO VIEW THIS GROUP set up by families of victims, she's identified at least 29 fatalities due to the defect. GM only acknowledges 13 deaths.
"I found 29 so far myself,". She said she's determined the additional fatalities using crash data, police reports or eyewitnesses [who reported] the airbags did not deploy."
Ken Rimer of Hammond, Wis., whose stepdaughter Natasha Weigel, 18, was killed in a 2005 Cobalt said, “They are not just 13 victims. We are real people.”
Sarah Trautwein, 19, lost control of her blue 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt on Interstate 95 near Charleston, S.C. as she headed home from visiting friends in June 2009. Her car began to run off the road, authorities said, causing her to over correct and hit a tree in the highway median. She died instantly.
Susan Hayes, 49, of Ticonderoga, N.Y., said she received a recall notice in February for her son’s silver Chevrolet Cobalt. By then, her son, Ryan Quigley, 23, had been dead for more than two years. He and a friend were killed when Quigley’s Cobalt, purchased just four months earlier, veered off the road and plunged over an embankment, landing upside-down in a small stream not far from the family’s home. The force of the crash was so violent that it broke her son’s sternum.
Cathy Sachse, whose mother-in-law was killed in 2009, while driving a Saturn Ion in Missouri.
Richard Scott Bailey, a U.S. Marine who died driving a 2007 Chevy Cobalt.
Amy Rademaker of St. Croix County, Wis., who died
when her Chevy Cobalt crashed and her air bags did
not deploy.
Joshua Wooten of Adams, Tenn. died in a 2009 crash driving his 2006 Chevy Cobalt.
Kelly Ruddy, 21 years old of Scranton, Pa. was killed in 2010 when her Chevrolet Cobalt veered inexplicably off the highway and crashed.
(Kim Langley, far left, mother of Richard Scott Bailey, a U.S. Marine who died driving a 2007 Chevy Cobalt, Laura Christian, center
left, of Harwood, Md., birth mother of Amber Marie Rose, the first
reported victim of the GM safety defect, Randal Rademaker, center,
father of Amy Rademaker of St. Croix County, Wis., who died when her
Chevy Cobalt crashed and her air bags did not deploy, and Shannon Wooten
of Adams, Tenn., whose son son Joshua died in a 2009 crash driving their
2006 Chevy Cobalt, gather at the Capitol for a news conference in Washington, Tuesday, April 1, 2014. AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite).
It was revealed today that the piece needed to fix a defective ignition switch linked to at least 13 traffic deaths would have cost just 57 cents, according to documents submitted by General Motors to lawmakers investigating why the company took 10 years to recall cars with the flaw.
CEO Mary Barra has testified in a congressional hearing today saying that she was disturbed by past GM comments that the cost of replacing defective switches in some cars was too high.
'I am deeply sorry,' Barra said at the beginning of the hearing.
At a hearing Tuesday, members of a House subcommittee demanded answers from Barra about why the automaker used the switch in small cars such as the Chevrolet Cobalt and Saturn Ion even though it knew the part didn't meet GM's own specifications.
Looking for answers: Barra said that the company
has ordered a wide-ranging investigation and she will know the answers
to many of the committee's questions once that is completed
Colorado Representative Diana DeGette held up a switch for one of the cars and said a small spring inside it failed to provide enough force, causing car engines to turn off when they went over a bump.
DeGette showed how easy it was for a light set of keys to move the ignition out of the ‘run’ position.
That can cause the engine to stall and the driver to lose power steering and power brakes.
‘Documents provided by GM show that this unacceptable cost increase was only 57 cents,’ DeGette said.
In her prepared statement, Barra said she doesn't know ‘why it took years for a safety defect to be announced,’ but ‘we will find out.’
Since February, GM has recalled 2.6 million cars over the faulty switch. The automaker said new switches should be available starting April 7.
Owners can ask dealers for a loaner car while waiting for the replacement part. Barra said GM has provided more than 13,000 loaner vehicles.
GM has said that in 2005 company engineers proposed solutions to the switch problem but that the automaker concluded that none represented ‘an acceptable business case.’
In an exchange with Pennsylvania Representative Tim Murphy, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Barra acknowledged that the switch didn't meet the company's own specifications.
Murphy also read from an e-mail exchange between GM employees and those at Delphi, which made the switch.
One said that the Cobalt is ‘blowing up in their face in regards to the car turning off.’
In his prepared remarks, David Friedman, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, pointed the finger at GM, saying the automaker had deliberately hidden information for the last decade that could have led to a recall, but shared it only last month.
Republican Congressman Fred Upton of Michigan, who serves as the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said GM and government regulators got complaints about the switches 10 years ago, and GM submitted reports to the agency.
The claims were filed between June 2003 and June 2012.
Waxman said that because GM didn't undertake a simple fix when it learned of the problem, ‘at least a dozen people have died in defective GM vehicles.’
Some current GM car owners and relatives of those who died in crashes were also in Washington seeking answers.
The group attended the hearing after holding a news conference demanding action against GM and stiffer legislation.
TRACKING THE TIMELINE: FROM WHEN THE PROBLEM WAS FIRST REPORTED MORE THAN A DECADE AGO TO WHEN GM FINALLY ISSUED THE RECALL
2001:
A report on the Saturn Ion, which was still in development, notes
problems with the ignition switch, but says a design change solved the
problems.
February 2002: GM approves the ignition switch design, even though it was told by Delphi — the supplier — that initial tests showed the switch didn't meet GM's specifications.
2003: A service technician reports that a Saturn Ion stalled while driving, and that the weight of the owners' keys had worn down the ignition switch.
Late 2004: The Saturn Ion's cousin, the 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt, goes on sale. GM learns of at least one crash where a Cobalt engine lost power after the driver inadvertently moved the key or steering column. GM engineers replicate the problem in test drives. An inquiry is opened within the company, but closes after potential solutions are rejected.
February 2005: GM engineers meet to consider making changes to the ignition switch after stalling reports. But an engineer says the switch is "very fragile" and advises against changes.
March 2005: The engineering manager of the Cobalt closes an investigation, saying an ignition switch fix would take too long and cost too much, and that "none of the solutions represents an acceptable business case."
May 2005: A GM engineer proposes changing the design of the key so it won't tug the ignition switch downward. The solution is initially approved but later cancelled.
July 29, 2005: Amber Marie Rose, 16, dies in a frontal crash in her 2005 Cobalt. A contractors hired by NHTSA found that the Cobalt's ignition had moved out of the "run" position and into the "accessory" position, which cut off power to power steering the air bags.
September 2005: GM's legal staff opens a file on the Maryland crash.
December 2005: GM tells dealers to inform owners of Cobalts to take excess items off their key chains so the key isn't pulled downward. Also, inserts placed on customers' keys can prevent the keys from shifting while in the ignition. The bulletin includes the 2005-2006 Chevrolet Cobalt, 2003-2006 Saturn Ion, 2006 Chevrolet HHR, 2006 Pontiac Solstice and the 2005-2006 Pontiac Pursuit, which was sold in Canada. Warranty records show that only 474 owners got those key inserts.
April 2006: A GM engineer signs off on a redesign of the ignition switch. The new switch goes into cars from the 2007 model year and later.
October 2006: GM updates the dealer bulletin to add vehicles from the 2007 model year.
March 2007: A group of GM employees learn from NHTSA staff of the 2005 fatal crash. By the end of the year, GM has data on nine crashes — in four, the ignition had moved from the run position to the accessory position.
August 2007: NHTSA contracts with Indiana University to study a 2006 Wisconsin crash in which two passengers died. The report finds the ignition in the 2005 Cobalt was in the accessory position and the air bags didn't deploy.
September 2007: Chief of NHTSA's Defects Assessment Division proposes an investigation of air bags failing to deploy in the Cobalt and Ion. Two months later, a NHTSA panel decides not to open a formal investigation, saying that the air bags aren't failing at a higher rate than peer vehicles.
2009: GM decides to change the key's head from a "slot" design to a "hole" design to reduce downward force. The key is changed for the 2010 model year — the last year the Cobalt is sold.
2010: After a NHTSA investigation, GM agrees to repair power steering motors in a little more than 1 million 2005-2010 Chevrolet Cobalts and 2007-2010 Pontiac G5s.
2011: GM launches a new investigation into 2005-2007 Cobalts and the 2007 Pontiac G5 to determine why their air bags didn't deploy in crashes.
2012: GM widens the investigation, but it closes without reaching a conclusion.
December 2013: Incoming CEO Mary Barra learns about the ignition switch defect.
January 2014: A committee of GM executives approves a recall.
February 13: GM recalls 780,000 compact cars, including Chevrolet Cobalts, Pontiac G5s and Pontiac Pursuits from the 2005-2007 model years.
February 25: GM expands the recall to include Saturn Ions and three other vehicles. The recall now totals 1.6 million vehicles worldwide.
March 5: NHTSA demands that GM turn over by April 3 documents showing when it found out about the ignition switch problem. Barra promises employees an "unvarnished" investigation into what happened.
March 10: A House subcommittee says it will hold a hearing, eventually set for April 1, on the GM recalls. The Justice Department is also conducting a criminal probe.
March 17: GM announces three new recalls of 1.5 million vehicles, as part of an effort to assure buyers that it's moving faster to fix safety defects.
March 18: Barra apologizes for the deaths that occurred. She appoints a new global safety chief.
March 28: GM expands the small car recall to include 971,000 vehicles from the 2008-2011 model years, which may have gotten the defective switches as replacement parts.
March 31: GM recalls 1.5 million vehicles, including the 2010 Cobalt and the 2004-2007 Ion, because the electronic power-steering assist can suddenly stop working.
April 1-2: Barra, NHTSA acting chief David Friedman to testify before Congressional committees.
April 7: GM expects replacement switches to be available at dealerships. The company says the repairs could take until October.
February 2002: GM approves the ignition switch design, even though it was told by Delphi — the supplier — that initial tests showed the switch didn't meet GM's specifications.
2003: A service technician reports that a Saturn Ion stalled while driving, and that the weight of the owners' keys had worn down the ignition switch.
Late 2004: The Saturn Ion's cousin, the 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt, goes on sale. GM learns of at least one crash where a Cobalt engine lost power after the driver inadvertently moved the key or steering column. GM engineers replicate the problem in test drives. An inquiry is opened within the company, but closes after potential solutions are rejected.
February 2005: GM engineers meet to consider making changes to the ignition switch after stalling reports. But an engineer says the switch is "very fragile" and advises against changes.
March 2005: The engineering manager of the Cobalt closes an investigation, saying an ignition switch fix would take too long and cost too much, and that "none of the solutions represents an acceptable business case."
May 2005: A GM engineer proposes changing the design of the key so it won't tug the ignition switch downward. The solution is initially approved but later cancelled.
July 29, 2005: Amber Marie Rose, 16, dies in a frontal crash in her 2005 Cobalt. A contractors hired by NHTSA found that the Cobalt's ignition had moved out of the "run" position and into the "accessory" position, which cut off power to power steering the air bags.
September 2005: GM's legal staff opens a file on the Maryland crash.
December 2005: GM tells dealers to inform owners of Cobalts to take excess items off their key chains so the key isn't pulled downward. Also, inserts placed on customers' keys can prevent the keys from shifting while in the ignition. The bulletin includes the 2005-2006 Chevrolet Cobalt, 2003-2006 Saturn Ion, 2006 Chevrolet HHR, 2006 Pontiac Solstice and the 2005-2006 Pontiac Pursuit, which was sold in Canada. Warranty records show that only 474 owners got those key inserts.
April 2006: A GM engineer signs off on a redesign of the ignition switch. The new switch goes into cars from the 2007 model year and later.
October 2006: GM updates the dealer bulletin to add vehicles from the 2007 model year.
March 2007: A group of GM employees learn from NHTSA staff of the 2005 fatal crash. By the end of the year, GM has data on nine crashes — in four, the ignition had moved from the run position to the accessory position.
August 2007: NHTSA contracts with Indiana University to study a 2006 Wisconsin crash in which two passengers died. The report finds the ignition in the 2005 Cobalt was in the accessory position and the air bags didn't deploy.
September 2007: Chief of NHTSA's Defects Assessment Division proposes an investigation of air bags failing to deploy in the Cobalt and Ion. Two months later, a NHTSA panel decides not to open a formal investigation, saying that the air bags aren't failing at a higher rate than peer vehicles.
2009: GM decides to change the key's head from a "slot" design to a "hole" design to reduce downward force. The key is changed for the 2010 model year — the last year the Cobalt is sold.
2010: After a NHTSA investigation, GM agrees to repair power steering motors in a little more than 1 million 2005-2010 Chevrolet Cobalts and 2007-2010 Pontiac G5s.
2011: GM launches a new investigation into 2005-2007 Cobalts and the 2007 Pontiac G5 to determine why their air bags didn't deploy in crashes.
2012: GM widens the investigation, but it closes without reaching a conclusion.
December 2013: Incoming CEO Mary Barra learns about the ignition switch defect.
January 2014: A committee of GM executives approves a recall.
February 13: GM recalls 780,000 compact cars, including Chevrolet Cobalts, Pontiac G5s and Pontiac Pursuits from the 2005-2007 model years.
February 25: GM expands the recall to include Saturn Ions and three other vehicles. The recall now totals 1.6 million vehicles worldwide.
March 5: NHTSA demands that GM turn over by April 3 documents showing when it found out about the ignition switch problem. Barra promises employees an "unvarnished" investigation into what happened.
March 10: A House subcommittee says it will hold a hearing, eventually set for April 1, on the GM recalls. The Justice Department is also conducting a criminal probe.
March 17: GM announces three new recalls of 1.5 million vehicles, as part of an effort to assure buyers that it's moving faster to fix safety defects.
March 18: Barra apologizes for the deaths that occurred. She appoints a new global safety chief.
March 28: GM expands the small car recall to include 971,000 vehicles from the 2008-2011 model years, which may have gotten the defective switches as replacement parts.
March 31: GM recalls 1.5 million vehicles, including the 2010 Cobalt and the 2004-2007 Ion, because the electronic power-steering assist can suddenly stop working.
April 1-2: Barra, NHTSA acting chief David Friedman to testify before Congressional committees.
April 7: GM expects replacement switches to be available at dealerships. The company says the repairs could take until October.
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