According to evidence from a recent wrongful death lawsuit filed by the parents of Brooke Melton, a Georgia woman who was killed when her 2010 Chevy Cobalt spun out and crashed, General Motors (GM) was well aware of a defect in its ignition switches nearly eight years ago and quietly changed the design of an internal part, but failed to inform federal regulators or any existing owners of GM vehicles with old, faulty switches.
In early February the automaker recalled 1.6 million of its vehicles, including several model years of the Chevy Cobalt, claiming their ignition switches could be accidentally switched over from “run” to the “accessory” position while the car is being driven. The defect causes the car’s power brakes, power steering and airbags to shut down. GM’s internal figures have linked these ignition problems to a dozen deaths so far.
Parents File Wrongful Death Suit against GM after Ignition Shut Down Kills their Daughter
However, evidence from a lawsuit filed by Brooke Melton’s parents, whose Chevrolet Cobalt spun out of control after shutting off on her 29th birthday, revealed that in 2006 GM altered two internal components of its ignition switches in a way that would make it less likely for the ignition to shut off accidentally. The change was made without notifying the government or any owners of the vehicles affected. Ken Melton, Brooke’s father, said:
“I’m still in shock and boiling over with anger. Anger that they would sweep something like this under the rug.”
Clarence Ditlow is the executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, a consumer watchdog group Ditlow accused GM of a “callous disregard for human life.” Ditlow added:
“GM had an obligation under the Safety Act to notify the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that there was a defect, we’re correcting it, and they had the additional obligation to recall the earlier models with the unsafe part.”
Four days prior to the fatal accident, according to the Meltons’ lawsuit, Brooke’s car had shut down while she was driving – causing her to lose her power steering and her brakes. She was able to pull her car over and restart it. She called her father, and he said they should take it to a dealership in the morning. Brooke got her car back from the dealership on March 9, 2010. She died in an accident the next day. The Meltons then called a personal injury attorney immediately.
According to the Meltons, experts contracted by their attorney examined the “black box” taken from their daughter’s wrecked Cobalt and discovered that the key had slipped from the “on” to the “accessory” position three seconds before the accident, shutting off her power steering and power brakes. Brooke’s car had then hydroplaned on the wet highway and was hit by another vehicle.
Wrongful Death Lawsuit Settled after Finding GM Engineers Knew about Faulty Parts Years Ago
Last month, GM issued a recall affecting the model that Brooke bought, along with other Chevrolets, Pontiacs and Saturns from model years 2003-2007. The car company now openly states the cars are prone to shutting off when the ignition is jostled in the slightest way.
During depositions for their lawsuit suit last year, the Meltons learned from GM engineers that the company had been aware of potential problems with its ignition systems before Brooke bought her vehicle in 2005. Engineers were aware that if the key was jostled or stressed by a dangling keychain, it could slip and shut the car off.
As of March 2014, the Meltons have since settled their wrongful death suit with GM for an undisclosed sum. And just weeks ago, in a chronology that it submitted to federal regulators, GM provided confirmation of what the Meltons’ attorney’s engineer had learned while investigating their daughter’s fatal crash. GM has now disclosed to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that a design engineer responsible for the Cobalt’s ignition switch “signed a document approving changes to the ignition switches proposed by the supplier, Delphi Mechatronics.”
NHTSA now demands to know why they weren’t notified of the changes, and has formally called for the names of everyone who was aware of the changes as well as their roles, and why the changes were approved in the first place.
Ken and Beth Melton have also pointed out that their daughter Brooke’s death is not included in the 12 deaths that GM has attributed to ignition problems. Ken Melton says he’s also angry that GM waited until 2014 to disseminate such crucial safety information that was available “so long ago.”
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