Page 2 - Accessory Position News Today

Heavier than others would cause it to go from the on to accessory position. >> no, she didnt. she only had four or five keys on the key chain and we actually weighed the key chain in the beginning when this started. so we proved that she did not have a heavy key chain. now, as far as her leg or knee bumping the key chain, the position of the ignition on the steering column is prone to do that. so im not sure if that happened or not. >> i know your case for the most part has been resolved, so you...

Blumenthal introduced a bill to give nhtsa copies of insurance claims made against them and lawsuits about fatal crashes in which they were a defendant. would you support a bill like that? whats the congressional action that should be taken here? >> well, lets look at that, but in the first case that i mentioned, that happened in 2005. the second case happened in 2009. there was plenty of time, and nhtsa, nhtsa commissioned the study on that first accident. i was reviewing their data where it sa...

Her 2005 cobalt on a rainy two-lane road when her key shut off, and as a result of her key shutting off, she lost her power steering, her anti-lock brakes. she lost control of her car, it went into the oncoming lane of travel whether it was the collision, and brooke died as a result of the collision. >> as far as you know, had she made contact with the key? >> it appears she did, yes. >> given the fact that it was in the accessory position at the time of the impact? >> mr. hood, youre the engine...

>> were the people left behind when a loved one got into what was supposed to be a safe car, gm car, car that gm knew for years was dangerous and defective. our daughters, sons, sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, wives, and husbands, are gone because they were a cost of doing business gm style. >> it was not the only case in 2006, these teens, natasha and her friend amy were riding in a chevy cobalt when the car suddenly lost power and slam into trees. that was in wisconsin. investigators foun...

Cobalt, pontiac g-5, is the urn ion and the sky. thats are the cars involved. >> these are not just the recalls. these have led to deaths. >> at least 13 deaths. >> if you have one of these cars, what do you need to know? >> the original part of the recall has already received a letter in the mail. april 7th is when were told theyre going to be fixing these cars because they had to make the ignition switch. the switch could be jostled or bumped in an accident and it would switch from the run to ...

>> the ignition switch was actually in the accessory position which in effect turned the airbags off. even back in 2005, i saw indications that gm was aware that this problem was occurring. >> in april of 2007, regulators were notified by an investigator that roses crash was linked to the faulty ignition. they did not open an investigation. and by the end of 2007, general motors was aware of four crashes related to their faulty ignition. they gathered the black boxes from the cars, but it wasnt ...

This? >> reporter: really the first big test of her new job, running general motors. she wrote a letter to their employees saying that she was going to order an investigation to get the unvarnished truth of what happened in that recall saying they acted appropriately. she said when this was brought up to my team a few weeks ago we acted without hesitation to go well beyond the decision by technical experts. recall is 1.4 million vehicles. 31 front end crashes that resulted in 13 fatalities. more...

Suddenly turn off the engine and airbag system while the car was driving. as early as 2004, gm knew of at least one incident where this happened. an engineer found that something as simple as a weighted key chain could cause the cobalt to lose power. solutions to fix the flaw were rejected by gm after consideration of the lead time required cost and effectiveness of each of these solutions. in 2005, a gm engineer proposed a redesign to fix the flaw. those plans were scrapped. instead, gm sent ou...

>> the ignition switch was actually in the accessory position which in effect turned the airbags off. even back in 2005, i saw indications that gm was aware that this problem was occurring. >> in april of 2007, regulators were notified by an investigator that roses crash was linked to the faulty ignition. they did not open an investigation. and by the end of 2007, general motors was aware of four crashes related to their faulty ignition. they gathered the black boxes from the cars, but it wasnt ...