General Motors made a fateful choice in the fall of 2001.

The company considered two options for ignition switches to be installed on the 2003 Saturn Ion. One drawing submitted that September contained an ignition switch that included a longer detent spring and plunger with greater torque.

In October, one month later, the company considered another engineering drawing that showed a shorter detent spring and plunger, which made it easier for the switch to move between the "run" and "accessory" positions.

Documents do not shed light on what motivated the decision to eschew use of the first switch, but GM's decision to go with the shorter switch has proven to have far-reaching consequences. The shorter switches have been linked to at least 32 car accidents resulting in at least 13 deaths.

Drawings of the two different switches were among the 200,000 pages of documents GM submitted to federal investigators who want to know why the company waited until this February to recall more than 2.5 million cars afflicted with the defective switches when it had knowledge of its flaws for more than a decade. The springs in the shorter switches were 9.6 millimeters; the springs in the longer ones were 12.3 millimeters, according to the documents. The difference between life and death was 2.7 millimeters.

On Wednesday, the Center for Auto Safety, which first noted the differences between the drawings, sent a letter to General Motors CEO Mary Barra, asking if she had been briefed about the differences in the parts – and the documents that illustrate them – in advance of Congressional hearings held earlier this month. Clarence Ditlow, the executive director of CAS, and Joan Claybrook, a former head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, called on Barra to release all documents that shed light on the decision to select the switch utilizing the shorter detent spring and plunger.


The documents "paint a tragic picture of the cost culture and cover up at General Motors," the pair wrote. "The conclusion we draw from examining the two different designs of the ignition switches under consideration in 2001 is that General Motors picked a smaller and cheaper ignition switch that cost consumers their lives and saved General Motors money."

In response, Greg A. Martin, spokesperson for General Motors, told Autoblog Wednesday that all of the questions would be addressed in an internal investigation being conducted by former US Attorney Anton Valukas. Martin said Valukas' investigation is expected to be completed within the next 45 to 60 days.

The defective ignition switches inadvertently could move from the "run" to "accessory" positions, and consequently turn off the engine and electrical systems, including the airbags and power steering. After their inclusion on the '03 Saturn Ion, GM also used them on certain models of the Chevrolet Cobalt, Saturn Sky, Pontiac G5 and Pontiac Solstice.

Consumers began complaining about the flaw and airing safety concerns almost immediately. Documents show that General Motors subsequently changed the part on April 21, 2006. The company didn't have to look far for a solution – it started using the switches with longer detent springs and plungers that it originally rejected five years earlier.

It was a "silent remedy," the Center for Auto Safety charges, one that enabled General Motors to hide the problem from federal safety regulators who might have compelled a recall of vehicles affected by the problem. Federal laws mandate that automakers report safety-related defects to NHTSA within five days of learning about them.

When GM made the switch to the longer switches, documents show that the company kept the same part number, violating a basic engineering tenet, a failure that Barra has acknowledged was inappropriate and substandard.

As scrutiny of the ignition switch mounted in the wake of a lawsuit settled last September, an engineer from Delphi, the supplier of the flawed switch, emailed his GM counterparts on October 29, 2013 trying to ascertain when the company had switched to the switch with the longer springs and plunger.

He referenced the original part numbers from the two options that existed in 2001, noting that they were different, and that matched the description of the changes made in 2006.

"Given these startling revelations that a safer switch existed in 2001 before the Saturn and Cobalt were put into production," Ditlow and Claybrook wrote, "we call on you to make the full 'unvarnished' internal investigation of Anton Valukas public as he must surely probe these areas."

GM Emergency Motion Delayed According to Hilliard Munoz Gonzales LLP

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas, April 4, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- This afternoon, Bob Hilliard, lead lawyer and partner at Texas law firm Hilliard Munoz Gonzales LLP, appeared before Federal Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos to argue for an emergency motion requiring General Motors to issue an immediate "Park It Now" alert to owners of GM vehicles with defective ignition switches.

BACK IN COURT ON APRIL 9

Judge Ramos heard both sides of the argument and gave GM's legal team until April 9th to file their sur-reply to Hilliard's motion. She did not indicate when she will issue her ruling.

SAVE LIVES: PARK THE CARS

Bob Hilliard said during the Federal Court hearing: "This affects over 2 million vehicles, the defect is severe and lives are being lost. The devastation is heartbreaking and immeasurable. This is a human safety issue that is ongoing. I would not wish it on anyone in this courtroom on either side of the table. Keep tomorrow's victim alive by making sure these cars are parked."

ABOUT HMG

Hilliard Munoz Gonzales LLP (HMG) specializes in mass torts, personal injury, product liability, commercial and business litigation, and wrongful death. The firm has won approximately $100,000,000 in settlements and verdicts for its clients. Hilliard Munoz Gonzales LLP has been successfully representing clients in the United States and Mexico since 1986.

HMG is actively seeking to represent other victims of GM's defective vehicles.

Despite all of the national publicity and Congressional hearings, General Motors may never fix all of the roughly 2.6 million vehicles involved in its ignition switch recall. The automaker may never get the chance – many owners simply don't have recalled vehicles serviced, regardless of the danger.

Since the automaker announced the first recall, it took months for Delphi to have enough improved parts on hand to supply them to dealers. With parts in place, GM's repairs were scheduled to begin on April 7. The company isn't discussing specific data on the number of vehicles repaired so far. "We're on track," said GM spokesperson Jim Cain to Autoblog about its progress. "Every day, parts availability improves."

However, there still could be hundreds of thousands of affected vehicles without the repair on the road in the coming years. According to a report by CNN Money, GM generally sees recall rates of 80 percent of cars within a year and 85 percent within two years. This is higher than the industry average of about 66 percent of models actually getting serviced. But even if 85 percent of them are repaired, it means about 390,000 cars on the road will still be left in need of the fix.

There are many reasons why an affected vehicle might not be repaired. Some people don't think they have the time to take their car in, despite the fact that GM struck a deal with several rental car agencies to ensure owners a loaner vehicle while the affected models were being fixed. It can also be hard to track down owners of older vehicles for recalls. The company might be trying to fix these cars for a long time to come.