General Motors to recall millions of vehicles for faulty ignition switches

Admitting a pattern of incompetence and neglect, the General Motors (GM) agreed to recall millions of vehicles to fix faulty ignition switches. It cost 15 GM employees their jobs and five others have been disciplined related to the recall. It also agreed to setup a compensation fund for families who lost lives of their loved ones and for those who were injured due to accidents related to the faulty ignition switches. At least 13 deaths have been linked to the faulty ignition switches. The GM for years didn’t recognize that the switch has any things to do with deadly accidents.

The U.S. Transportation Department announced in May 2014 that it is imposing a fine of $35 million on GM, the largest ever fine of this kind for delaying recall of 2.6 million vehicles with faulty ignition switches. Previously, GM emerged from bankruptcy in 2009. Many are crediting the GM’s new CEO, Mary Barra, first women CEO for GM for taking swift actions immediately after publishing a report detailing the faulty ignition switch issue. GM also retained the services of Attorney Kenneth Feinberg, the veteran who handled the BP compensation fund.