Recently, General Motors Company faced an airbag recall lawsuit alleging that they purposely concealed defects in airbags and seatbelts. At least 1,298 people have died or been injured as a result.
What Happened: In 1999, GM employed Delco Electronics to design an SDM module. These engineers were commissioned to design a sensor for a car, the “Sensing and Diagnostic Module”: the sensor responsible for deciding when to deploy airbags and lock seat belts.
Delco Electronics advised GM that the SDM should be programmed to deploy airbags at 45 milliseconds of indication that an accident occurred. However, GM deliberately ignored this advice and set theirs to 150 milliseconds instead.
Even after examining records stretching back to 2008, federal regulators say they haven’t found a Pattern of using faulty consumer products in order to claim bankruptcy and force a company into a reorganization. However, a lawsuit filed by the widow of an Alabama man accused GM to recall its faulty Cobalts.
However, it may have been GM’s knowledge about the Airbag defect. The lawsuit says “when GM was formed in 2009 it acquired records, personnel, and books from Old GM that evidenced their reckless decision to use the dangerous SDM calibration in its trucks and SUVs.” The lawsuit continues, saying” despite this acquired knowledge, GM continued to use Delco SDMs in their vehicles after 2009 even though they knew they were faulty.”GM
GM knowingly sold millions of faulty airbags, according to a new lawsuit. The main contention is that GM committed fraud by concealing SDM issues, and it also violated various state laws. The actual compensation amount has not yet been disclosed, but will likely be significant given the severity of accusations.
A shocking lawsuit was filed against GM, claiming that the automaker sold faulty airbags. The complaint also cites National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration data that shows these faulty airbags did not deploy in at least 1,298 crashes where people were either killed or injured. Representing “millions” of GM consumers since 2009.
According to the lawsuit, GM was “recklessly and negligently” unfit, unsafe and put consumers at risk by violating certain GM manufacturing standards. GM has failed to notify all affected persons of the safety defect and that this violation is ongoing. In addition, GM’s use of airbags as opposed to other systems like seat belts are defective and have led to multiple unintended deaths. GM announced in November 2017 that it would be initiating an airbag recall after several car owners reported that their undeployed airbags had made a crashing sound. In a lawsuit against GM, the automaker was accused of trickery after it was revealed that the company had known about the sticky gas-pressurizing valves for nearly two decades and yet never initiated any action to address them. This GM airbag recall lawsuit cost them an estimated $1.2 billion.
GM knowingly sold millions of faulty airbags, according to a lawsuit filed. The litigation is not necessarily surprising since GM has had issues in the past with hiding vehicle defects to avoid the costs of a recall. For example, in 2015 the automaker was found responsible for not disclosing that they knew about an ignition switch issue ahead of time despite at least 18 reports that the part could disengage causing airbag failed deploy requiring owners to replace their defective ignition switches.
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