The US government's auto safety watchdog is investigating whether General Motors acted quickly enough to recall 1.6 million older-model small cars in a case linked to 13 deaths.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said yesterday night that it opened the probe "to determine whether GM properly followed the legal processes and requirements for reporting recalls."
Most of the cars were sold in the US, Mexico and Canada. The agency has the authority to fine GM as much as USD 35 million under legislation that went into effect late last year. The previous maximum fine automakers faced per incident was USD $17.35 million. Automakers must report evidence of safety defects within five days of discovering it.
On Tuesday, GM doubled the number of cars in the recall for faulty ignition switches. The problem has been linked to 31 front-end crashes that caused the 13 deaths. The company also issued a rare apology.
"The chronology shows that the process employed to examine this phenomenon was not as robust as it should have been," GM North America President Alan Batey said in a statement Tuesday. "Today's GM is committed to doing business differently and better."
A chronology of events filed Monday with NHTSA by GM show it knew of the problem as early as 2004.
Since undergoing a painful bankruptcy in 2009, GM has removed layers of bureaucracy and improved the quality of its vehicles and is quicker to issue recalls when problems occur. However, the admission that its procedures were lacking 10 years ago shows how the old culture can still haunt the automaker.
