Summary: Due to intentional omissions of safety concerns, GM may be liable for the deaths of 174 individuals.
According to FreedomOutpost.com, if you kill 174 people with a gun, you’re a mass murderer; but when the automobile industry does it, it’s more acceptable.
The Department of Justice recently released a statement saying criminal charges will be filed against General Motors because the company admitted it withheld information about the safety of millions of their vehicles from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the public.
At a minimum, 174 people have died because of GM’s lies. PRNewswire adds that 50 cases that resulted in death were recently settled.
GM admitted that the omission led to 15 deaths, as well as other severe injuries.
Last year, senators questioned why the top attorney at GM still had a job.
According to the FBI, “The defect consisted of an ignition switch that had been designed and manufactured with too-low torque resistance and could therefore move easily out of the “Run” position into “Accessory” or “Off” (the “Defective Switch”). When the switch moved out of Run, it could disable the affected car’s frontal airbags–increasing the risk of death and serious injury in certain types of crashes in which airbags were otherwise designed to deploy….To date, GM has acknowledged a total of 15 deaths, as well as a number of serious injuries, caused by the Defective Switch.”
Many are outraged that, even though dozens of people have died as a result of these omissions, GM’s only punishment is a fine of $900 million and deferred prosecution.
Read about the investigation into the recall here.
Last year GM reported $2.8 billion in profits; $900 million is not even one-third of that amount. According to the Washington Post, the penalty is much less than the $1.2 billion fine that Toyota was forced to pay after cars that could suddenly accelerate were not recalled; the Toyota issue caused approximately five deaths.
Additionally, if the manufacturer acknowledges “responsibility” and accepts independent monitoring, the criminal case against GM may be dropped in just three years. No employees will face charges.
In 2013, GM faced close to a $1 billion fine.
In an interesting demonstration, the author of the FreedomOutpost.com article noted that since 1966, there have only been five shootings that ended the lives of 15 or more individuals. These tragedies garnered national attention and resulted in flags being lowered to half-mast for days. The deaths of the 174 people affected by the GM defect have not received nearly as much attention.
Source: FreedomOutpost.com
Photo credit: money.cnn.com