Despite General Motors admission the other day that “organizational dysfunction” was the leading cause why its ignition switch recall didn’t happen when it was supposed to, a senator from Connecticut still isn’t happy.
Senator Richard Blumenthal said the internal report that was compiled by former US Attorney Anton Valukas, a consultant for General Motors, failed to answer certain questions and did not identify a compensation plan for victims.
The report “amounts to circling the wagons to marshal a legal defense. It’s the best report that money can buy. It absolves upper management and limits culpability. This report leaves really critical questions unanswered. It’s a failure to come clean and acknowledge full responsibility,” said Blumenthal during a conference call with reporters.
Yesterday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released a compilation of the report, which found no evidence of a conspiracy by General Motors to cover up the failure of issuing a recall for ignition switch issues, which the company had known about for 11 years. However, GM CEO Mary Barra admitted the report and its highlighting of the company’s misgivings were “extremely tough, brutally tough and deeply troubling.”
But Blumenthal is not yet satisfied. “Clearly, the number is more than 13,” Blumenthal said, remarking about the number of deaths that have resulted with cars with faulty ignition switches. “As much as compensation is important, public acknowledgement of those victims is also critical … You would think the investigation would help to shape the fund in determining how many victims there were, how many should be compensated and how many injuries and others who were harmed, but there are none of those relevant results from this investigation.”
Blumenthal has co-sponsored pending legislation with Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, titled “Early Warning Reporting System Improvement Act of 2014,” Markey also has been critical of the Valukas report. “We need more than an accounting of past mistakes. We need to ensure accountability and that permanent measures are put in place to prevent future deaths. An internal investigation alone is not nearly enough to ensure that a decade-long tragedy like this never happens again. Until we end the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ culture that enabled these tragedies, we risk the potential that auto manufacturers will again keep deadly secrets.”
Comments
Funny how the one culture that is more dysfunctional than GM is the one that likes to be more critical.
Rich you clean up your house first then you come back and worry about GM.
I wonder if Anton Valuka can do government investigations? There would for sure be more than 15 let go from inside the government. Those investigations are definitely needed these days. The government has their own issues to work out. I really don’t see a point in really dragging this out further. People inside the old GM messed up, they have recently been disciplined, GM is making adjustments for the future, GM will work on lawsuits. There is no need to continue really, it’s most likely for political show. Also does he have proof to go with his beliefs?
,,,,,my god he bring is office furniture whit him,,,
He needs to blow it out his @$$ as far as I’m concerned. Clean things up yourself then you have a right to carry on, not just because you’re a politician is what I say.
NOTHING WRONG WITH WHAT THE SENATOR SAID” ,FREEDOM OF SPEECH ? THE 10TH AMENDMENT ! WHY SHOULD’NT GM TELL OF THE COMPENSATION PACKAGE THEY GAVE THE VICTIMS ? WHY ? GM CHEAPEN OUT THE LAWYERS ARE THE REAL WINNERS ?? THE FAMILY’S WHO LOST LOVED ONE OVER BIG GREEDY GM SHOULD BE WELL TAKIN CARE OF SINCE A BIG AUTO MANUFACTURER PUT OUT A FAULTY PRODUCT , KNOWINGLY & WILLINGLY WITH NO CARE FOR HUMAN LIFE IF ANY LOSS OR THE FACT THAT IT WOULD BE UNFEASIBLE FOR THEM TO SPEND MORE THAN .56 CENTS TO SPEND ON A NEW IGNITION SWITCH ??????? A FEW YEARS AGO WHEN WE THE USA CITIZENS HAD TO FRONT MONEY TO HELP BAIL THEM OUT OF THE SLUMP & THE FALL OF GM WHEN GM STOCK WENT TO . 1 CENT A SHARE ME AS A TAX PAYER I WANT TO SEE WHERE MY UNPAID BACK MONEY WENT TO ?
And it is people like this that keep reelecting people like Dick.
If you think you can trust these jokers more than any auto MFG leader than I have ocean front property in AZ to sell you.
You need to learn the difference from leadership and grandstanding. This is grandstanding.
Ask the government about the money. From an investment that was worth it, GM repaid the government. This isn’t just GM though. When in history has the government ever returned that kind of money back to the citizens? There is so much the government spends taxpayer money on, some of it adds up to be more than the bailout, and no one has made a big deal about it. Freedom of speech? Ok, I get your point, but this senator is just going through with more government shenanigans. You could also ask why didn’t the government do anything through all these years, because the government definitely knew about it? GM did what they had to do, the government is just playing games, and this senator has come up with some kind of crazy conspiracy theory, without proof.
You obviously gave yourself the thumbs up, because nothing in your idiotic diatribe made sense to anyone but yourself. Except for maybe magirus, but you both are like two peas in a pod when it comes to stupid posts.
This senator is a blowhard, and the fact he is railing against GM at this point is laughable. He was for the bailout, but I guess since it did not work to his liking, he is now becoming the witch hunter to something that has already been hunted and figured out. He is only trying to score political points and more than likely really could care less about what actually happened due to the switch failures.
I along with most everyone else was against bailing out any company when the economy soured, but even I have to admit since the bailout the quality of the vehicles and management of GM have been so much better.
This ignition issue happened under poor management and the horrific bean counters of old GM, and most of those dorks and their mentality in the old company have been dispensed. The new regime is taking account for what happened with the switches and is now having to overreact to every other little thing in order to show they are going to be a more accountable company.
I feel really bad for the families of the deceased and the injured who have had to suffer due to this issue. If there is a price you can put on the life of a human being that will bring relief to the families (which there isn’t) I’m sure the new GM will pay it out and offer the families what will be described by many as a hollow apology that’s coming too little and too late.
So go on and keep trying to get your points across by posting moronic comments in all CAPS, but instead of getting anyone to agree with you or take you seriously it just makes you look a lot DUMBER.
Keep in mind it is the mouth breathers that use all caps that vote these fools in time after time after time because they look for a D or an R and not consider what the quality or standards are of the persons they elect. To be fair both parties have been short on real quality for a long time in many cases.
Dana, Its not about the government,What the Senator was asking was directed to GM, ASKING WHAT HAVE THEY DONE / PAID TO THE INDIVIDUALS THAT WERE HURT OR TO THE FAMILIES THAT HAD A LOVED ONE KILLED AS A DIRECT RESULT OF GM NEGLECT, Putting cheap inexpensive parts because who would care if there were loss of life !! Thats what was asked from the beginning ! Look now what is it 27,000 Silverado, and 15,000 HD Silverado’s ? Just put on the list of new recalls. The list keeps growing like your nose.
How isn’t it about the government? The NHTSA part of the government knew of the defect, and they didn’t do anything until GM voluntarillty recalled the vehicles this year. The Silverados, Sierras, Tahoes, Suburbons, Yukons, Escalades, and many other recalls of most recent vehicles would show up as a TSB for dealers to check the cars when they come in for an oil change. GM is recalling them to make sure that as many vehicles as possible come back to GM dealerships to get checked and possibly repaired. There are customers that purchase a new car and hardly ever return back to the dealer. The majority of this stuff is on parts suppliers, but they don’t get talked about or strictly regulated. What GM is doing with these recalls is correcting a problem from the beginning, they’re not taking any chances on anything.
The investigation showed what happened and an executive decision was made between Mark Reuss, Dan Annman, and herself on who to discipline. I’m sure if Ms. Barras predecessor Dan Akerson knew of this he would have made a recall. I make an analysis based on how the timeline has been reported. Everyone realizes the truth, GM messed up, but they don’t realize that they are a separate company today, from that one that produced these vehicles. From my understanding is that the NHTSA knew of the defect, they made a claim, and that was pretty much it, as more accidents were occurring, I thought the government would be more concerned while things were happening, and not after the fact, like they do with everything in this administration. Instead the new GM announced they were recalling these vehicles, then everyone, the media and the government are coming to bust them, when this was a known fact by the government for years.
The point also was, the claim about GM not repaying the taxpayer, which is what you brought up. That’s correct they repaid the Government who bailed out GM with taxpayer money. The fact is, the government has the money repaid, but the taxpayers still will not see it.
This honestly reminds me of the time I watched the crucible in my English class, for those of you that don’t know this movie, it’s based on the real story that started the Salem witch trials. Seriously, politicians of any kind are the last people to talk about getting clean, they’ve fired 15 people, disciplined 5, payed a guy from outside the company to investigate, Barra even sat down and talked to some of the families, which by the way, I’m pretty sure a mother who lost her child would be pretty damn close to attacking her(I’m not judging, my own mother would do the same, it’s just how they are when it comes to their children), so she pretty much risked her own safety to try to talk to the families affected, what more does this jerk want? He wants make sure this doesn’t happen again? Why doesn’t he punish DMVs for not making sure teens know what the f*** to do when something like this happens, cause I’m pretty sure my 62 yo dad who drives like a jack*** knows exactly what to do when his car breaks down, and believe me it’s happened numerous times. On top of that, I forgot to mention how most teens my age don’t understand that this is a semi-tamed animal, if you make a mistake it will bite you and most likely kill you, but most don’t get this and choose to drive like a**holes anyways.
I’m sure that the surviving loved ones of the deceased drivers would disagree with GM continuing to ignore serious safety issues in their vehicles for decades on end, and then when they are fined a pittance, they just consider it the cost of doing business. Criminally negligent acts need to be punished regardless of who has committed them.
This is the deal Politicians never let a controversy or crisis go to waste if they can drag out publicity or gain power.
Dick here has no clue how GM works or does not work let alone the auto industry. He like many others in Washington either drive little or do not drive at all.
Second people on the web many times lash out because they either hate a company or large corporations in general. They are not of a rash business mind to understand how our capital system works. While not perfect it works a hell of a lot better than most systems in the world.
They also need to grasp that this was a case of negligence and incompetence and that people do not go to jail for this. Hell we get people with 5 DUI convictions and seldom spend time in jail even if they have killed someone.
The fact of the matter is GM failed internally and there was no great conspiracy here. The fact is there was an issue and either people did nothing to report it or had no system in place to report it. trust me the top people in most companies do not all that is going on and the larger the company the less they often know. I have dealt with many of the tire companies and it is amazing how some of them ever get anything done.
What happened at GM is not special or unique. There are no perfect companies out there and they all make mistake and have issues. Many have had many more deaths involved and never even made the headlines of a paper or web.
The fact is like I stated a long time ago that GM would work through this and survive. At least most people in this country are not so blind they can not see the truth and rationalize a situation properly.
In the end GM will have things fixed in these areas and be a better company for it. Odds are they will have the best track record moving forward with the media watching them. Second the families who have legitimate claims will be taken care of.
The fact is yes there was an issue here but even with 13 deaths some with mitigating circumstances this was not the worst auto related issue ever and to be honest it was not even close.
Cars like the VW Beetle and Wagon Bus have had many deaths due to their poor design. The Crown Vic had more fire related deaths many police officers, The Subaru Brat with the jump seats in the bed killed more, the Samurai and jeep CJ5 killed many more than this car. How many years trucks carried the fuel tank in the back of the cab and it killed many.
Today there is a retro fit fuel tank for the most loved 64 and up Mustang as the fuel tank is the floor of the trunk of the car. many have been burned in crashes here but yet nary a word in the media.
Even in the era of the Cobalt and the other cars only the Cobalt is in the top ten list for deaths per million cars and even then it is something like 5th on the list with things like a Nissan truck even beating it.
The realities in life is you take a chance every time you get into a car or plane. Part of like is dying and there is a chance you can buy it at any moment. Sometimes it is fair and you get a long life and other times it is not fair and you do not get as much time as you should. I know this first hand as I almost was taken by a Cell Phone texter that pulled in front of me. Yes your cell phone has killed more people than GM but where is the out rage there?
As it is we can see the sales at GM are doing fine and they will be a better company for this. The out rage will still be taken up by the haters and those who are trying to capitalize on it. The majority will be rash and understand that this was not as big of an issue as many others that are let go because it was not GM or some other large company that was targeted.
Alcohol kills more people in this country than most anything but nary a word? They go to ban cigarettes but yet we have to states that legalize pot? We have a country that spends billions on our safety and then let go 5 of the worst killers and think they can watch them? Sorry the GM story should have been reported but there are much worse things that should be at the top of the reporting list. Even my local paper puts the GM story on page one and the Obama trade on page 5. It is one thing to negotiate but the trade we just did will kill many more Americans just watch. It was a trade even the Cleveland Browns would not have touched.
But in the end if you expect someone to go to jail you will be disappointed. Yes GM will be fined. The one fine is only the start and the next one from the Justice department will be for at the least a Billion Dollars the government will get back and waste. The families that everyone feels for will never get back their loss but they will all be compensated to the point they, their children and grandchildren will never have to work if they invest properly. Not the way to get rich but they will not be left with nothing.
It Is time many do their home work and put this into perspective vs. just getting lead around by politicians and the biased media. You have a brain use it for once. It is no wonder we have so many issues and diverseness in this country.