General Motors has repeatedly claimed that cars being recalled due to a faulty ignition switch can be safely driven, as long as the driver removes any unnecessary additional weight from their key ring. However according to Reuters, the automaker has not addressed a problem which has also been known shut off the engine, a small bump from the driver’s knee.
Due to the lack of testing from GM for the knee bump factor, safety advocates say the cars aren’t safe to drive. GM engineer Gary Altman, who has since been put on paid leave as a result of the recalls, first noted the ignition switch could be shifted out of the “accessory” position with a bump of the knee in 2004.
GM scored an important victory in regards to the recalls Thursday when a Texas judge denied a motion which would have forced the automaker to advise all owners of a recalled vehicle to park their cars until they had been fixed. The plaintiffs, a Texas couple, and safety advocates argued that there is no way to ensure the key won’t slip out of the run position unless it has been repaired.
In the case, GM filings indicated it made more than 80 tests of driving with only a bare key to prove the cars were safe to drive. The tests involved driving over a pothole four feet wide by seven feet long by five inches deep at 25 miles per hour, driving over a 4-inch high median at an angle and locking up the brakes while driving off the median, and driving around a 4-mile loop “with a series of bumps, swells, railroad crossings,” between 25 to 75 miles per hour. All of the tests described situations where a force outside the car would have bumped the key. There is no indication of a test for a knee bump.
“Based on more than 80 individual tests, including some very severe tests like driving over a railroad crossing at high speed and driving over river rocks, potholes and cobblestones, we concluded that the recalled cars are safe to drive provided just the ignition key is used to operate the vehicle. The results of the tests, all of which are described in our affidavit, speak for themselves,” GM spokesman Jim Cain said in a statement about the tests, which were run in March. He declined to say whether or not GM would conduct tests for a knee bumps in the future.
Safety advocates continue to push GM to test for knee bumps.
“They should have run that test because that’s one of the known failure problems,” said Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Center for Automotive Safety.
According to documents submitted to congressional investigators by GM and parts supplier Delphi, GM test drivers and customers have repeatedly experienced incidents where they accidentally bumped the key and turned off cars involved in the recall.
A GM document introduced last year during a lawsuit claimed 6-foot-3-inch GM driver Onassis Matthews inadvertently turned the ignition key off with his knee while test driving a Saturn Ion in February 2004. A February 2005 service bulletin also told dealers to watch out for shorter drivers who may pull the seat up close to the steering wheel, increasing the chances of them bumping the ignition with their knee.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), has advised drivers to follow GM’s advice and drive with only the key in the ignition with no key ring attached. It has yet to respond to Reuters’ requests for comment about the risks of accidental knee knocking.
Comments
You would have to have a damn long leg to be on the gas and hit the key.
This is just more BS.
I have yet to read an article that validates the so called 14 or so deaths are directly linked the ignition switch, has anyone else. I have seen news stating that 2 of the individuals had been impaired or had been drinking alcohol. I am not trying to be insensitive but enough with the sensationalized media coverage, where are the facts…
They are linked because the air bags did not go off. I do not believe they are saying the engine stopping caused the accident.
A couple of the accidents it is doubtful they would have lived even if the airbags worked.
I saw one story that stated in half of the 13 deaths nearly half had alcohol involved and over half did not use a seat belt.
I wish I had saved the story.
What I find telling is that they went from 13 to over 300 and then the truth came out and now it has settled at the 13 and no one can prove any more.
Like I have asked from the start I wish we would get full disclosure of these accidents. If GM has to give up their info then make the rest of the accidents public so we can just know the full details. As it is now they have leaked out on several and they are not being honest telling the whole story.
Again I am not absolving GM of any fault but those who fully contributed to the accident should also be held to their part in this.
The driver was OUI, no license, no insurance, no belt and he was doing 89 MPH and the car got airborne.
I feel for the mom and to her credit she so far is not going after GM on this one like the mother in MD is going after GM for her daughter OUI no belt crash again speeding.
Sorry but air bags are not always going to save you with no belt as you run a real risk of a broken neck with out a belt.
My stand on this is both sides need to come clean and be responsible for their part in all of this. The media should also be responsible and present both sides and keep the perspective of this whole deal as like I have stated before this is far from the most deadly issue in the industry we have ever seen many times over. It is not even the worst car of this era.
I do not expect GM to get off free on this but I do think all the facts should be fairly presented all the way around.
I get tired of the we hate the large corporations thinking. Yes they do some dirty things but the public is not always the most honest either as over the majority will not accept responsibility for their own actions anymore.