The number of deaths in the US linked to General Motors’ defective ignition switch has risen to 23, according to figures released on Monday by the programme set up to compensate victims. The programme is sending its first letters with payment offers to more than 30 families who have filed death and injury claims.
The family of a Pennsylvania boy who was gravely injured in an 2009 accident that killed his great-grandmother and 13-year-old aunt, said Monday they would accept the offer, although it would not divulge the amount of the award.
A week before his first birthday, the boy, Trenton Buzard (below), was in the back of a Chevrolet Cobalt driven by Esther Matthews (73), his great-grandmother, when it collided with an oncoming vehicle in Knox, Pennsylvania. The air bags did not deploy, and Matthews and her granddaughter, Grace Elliott (13), were included in GM's initial estimates of 13 deaths linked to the ignition switch defect, which can cause a moving car to suddenly lose power, disabling air bags and impeding power steering and brakes.
GM accepted that some of its engineers knew about the problem for more than a decade before the company disclosed it publicly this year and began recalling 2.6 million cars.
Thirty-nine claims have been determined to be eligible for payments from the company. As of Friday, the programme had received 867 claims, including 153 for deaths. The deadline for filing claims is December 31st, although the process of evaluating them and requesting additional evidence could continue for months after that.
– (The New York Times)