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GM Ignition Switch Survivors Group To Erect Billboard In Detroit

A General Motors ignition switch survivors group will be working to put up a new billboard in Detroit, Michigan to continue raising awareness of GM’s actions and to hold the automaker accountable.

According to local news affiliate WXYZ, the activist group, called GM Recall Survivors Inc., wants GM to follow through on a handful of promises following 124 fatalities linked to the faulty ignition switch. Laura Christian, the group’s founder, lost her daughter in an accident involving a faulty ignition switch.

“Our primary purpose is calling on GM to put action behind their words,” said Christian “They say they are all about safety and we want to see them do exactly that.”

“We have two primary initiatives,” Christian said. “The first is to enact federal law holding auto executives criminally liable for staying silent on auto safety issues. The second priority is to ban the sale of used cars nationwide that have been recalled until repaired.”

The billboard will feature the face of Christian’s daughter, along with other victims, will be put in place on the I-75 service drive at Rosa Parks Boulevard in Detroit.

Former GM Authority staff writer.

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Comments

  1. Should be all automobile manufacturers who sale vehicles in North America.

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  2. I know there is a lot to the ignition switch fiasco, but I really have a problem with this lady. Somehow, her daughter would have survived driving drunk (as an underage teenager), excessively speeding, not wearing a seatbelt and crashing into a tree or pole (can’t remember which)…GM is the one to blame. Anyone but this lady (I am sorry for your loss but I have no sympathy after losing a co-worker over a decade ago to a drunk teen). Hope everyone realizes that GM has, with the exception of the Takata recall, issued the most recalls of any car company. They’ve put stop sales on certain vehicles. Moving forward, what more do they need to do? They can’t force you to bring your car in for service and unscrupulous dealers are selling recalled vehicles without doing the work (GM is cracking down on this one hard).

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  3. Yes Laura is one of the people in this in it for the money.

    She gave up her daughter for Adoption at birth then only had recently contacted her before her death. The family that she knew and raised here got their settlement from the start and were paid in full by GM. Laura who had nothing coming has been since then trying to get her own settlement. Well she has nothing coming as the death was settled with Ambers legal family.

    I think some lawyers got ahold of Laura and they are just playing this to the point GM will pay them to just go away. Well GM at this point will pay her nothing since she has nothing owed to her.

    This is over top of the fact that Amber was driving drunk more than twice the speed limit into a dead end street with no seat belt head on into a tree. Odds are slim if the air bag had functioned the results would have been different. Yet GM paid her family for their part in this.

    Many need to remember that GM has already paid settlements of over $876 million dollars and still has more cases to deal with. The final 100 cases are in many cases not all legit cases or people just wanting more money. So far of the final 5 cases only two were settled and 3 were tossed out as the people were lying or blaming their own accident on the key when it was not at fault.

    GM has settled most of the legit cases and in these final 100 maybe 1/3 may have a legit case and are just seeking more money than GM offered. The rest are just people and lawyers seeking settlements to go away like Ms. Christian.

    If she wants money she needs to see the family that raised her daughter as their own and the one they lost.

    There was right and wrong on both sides here and it is getting worked out. What is funny how some here are so outraged and upset with GM never said a word on the Ford/Firestone Explorer cover up and deaths. Or the many other cars that killed more. If GM was wrong here was the outrage on the others? This was not good but far from the worst auto cover up and nor the highest death count.

    It is ok to expect GM to be held accountable but keep it even with all automakers.

    I would recommend the What Would Jesus Drive book as the guy who had to deal with the PR from Ford and Firestone wrote about what all went on. It was really ugly. If I recall even more died there and Firestone pretty much walked away and let Ford catch all the cost.

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    1. Even of not legitimate clames. GM should refund everyone for the full price what their vehicle’s was worth when they purchased the vehicles plus interest due to False/Misleading/Deceptive Advertising. What GM did was Illegal its called Fraud.

      Selling an unsafe vehicle as safe when GM knew for so long that they switch was dangerous that has caused deaths but kept adding them to vehicles is called False/Misleading/Deceptive Advertising = Fraudulent sales of Vehicles = Illegal

      Also should be charged and sent to jail for Murder and attempted murder. If you I did this we would be sent to jail.

      Gm has refused to do my recall because I want it done under my terms and conditions.

      And my terms are.

      1.) Me being inside the vehicle when recall is getting done. Sign waiver thats waves my rights to sue GM and or dealerships and or technician if anything happens to me during replacement of Recalled Ignition Switch & Ignition Cylinder.

      2.) Video record the recall being done. But not Identifiable video recording of technician.

      3.) Keep the old ignition Switch & Ignition cylinder.

      I have recorded all my phone call to and from General Motors in case General Motors wishes to back my story up if General Motors says I’m lying. Also media contact me if you wish to listen to recordings.

      mrecallcarownersfightback at (g m a i l).com

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      1. Sorry email address is:

        gmrecallcarownersfightback at (g m a i l).com

        I would also like to add that GM does not own my vehicle and right now they are holding me hostage from geting the recall done.

        Its my vehicle I should have the legal right to have the recall done under my terms and conditions.

        Right now by General Motors refusing to do the recall under my terms and conditions General motors is putting the lives of my family in danger . This also goes to show that General Motors is not sorry for what they have done. They are only sorry that they got caught.

        General Motors if your sorry as you say you are Why refuse to do the recall under my terms and conditions if its a really urgent life threatening recall?

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      2. Yet you probably choke to death on a grain of rice.

        I bet the dealer had a real laugh at your conditions?

        You so realize that even those who were behind this had no intent to kill so there is no way this could be murder. It at the worst could be involuntary manslaughter. Even then then you would have to have indisputable proof of who really did this and was the one who made the call.

        A couple low level guy’s made the call and even with them and their admission you would have a weak case for proving guilt.

        What is next are you going to ask Toyota to ride along with the car as it is being built?

        GM has made a fair offer to repair the car. It is a good repair and should not be an issue. Why do I know this? Well I own one of these cars and drive it often with no fear or threat of the key having an issue.

        From your post you appear as if you almost wish you had an accident just to collect the money.

        The fact is while this was not good for anyone there are just as bad or worst things being done on many other cars from many other brands.

        So at this point I would take the tin foil hat off and get the car fixed and if you hate GM so much go buy a Yugo.

        What are you going to do when you find your next car has a Takata air bag?

        The reality is if you are driving your car the odds are there is nothing wrong with the key as in most of these cars. Only a small part of the millions in production were affected. So at this point because you don’t now you are putting yourself at risk if you should drive your car.

        As of now what you have posted would be used in court to show you were beyond reason for getting a repair done and just about any stable judge would toss any claims out. In other words your own words would ground your case.

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        1. No they won’t because I have proof in phone call recording that I called before the Canadian recall. Telling them that we dont feel safe in the vehicle. And that every time we took it in for oil change always found issues with vehicle and we are spending 1,500.00 – 2,500.00 basically every time we take it in. And this is all on CITY driving.

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          1. Sounds like you have a bad dealer and know so little about the car they take advantage of you. Or you have so poor up keep that you have dire needs in the car.

            I am banking on number one based on you comments.

            I took mine in and it took less than 20 min, I was offered a cold soft drink in front of a 70+ inch TV and and lounge chair. No fuss no muss and my car is just fine and dandy. I have a good dealer and I knew how they would replace it before I even took it in.

            My car is of no need and I keep up on the maintenance and know what to do when. To go in uninformed today is not an excuse as most forums are loaded with not just feed back from other owners but often the TSB notices and even the direction for the recall to the tech from GM.

            Today to get taken advantage of is only do to the lack of preparation and self education.

            If you are informed you then can tell if you are being taken advantage of and can choose wisely as to what the cars needs are or tell if the dealer is not a good dealer.

            Most people never read the owners manual. Most of what you need to know is there and just add a little common sense.

            Other wise if you so not prepare you may get ripped off or do things like sit and watch the tech work with a video camera as the rest of the dealer thinks you are nuts.

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            1. We actually do follow when to get things done properly. We even have to get our car certified every 2 years in our city for safe driving. We have been the multiple different garages because we thought we might be getting ripped off. We have had issues with a dealership not installing the bushings correctly so they ruined new tires. Another dealer replaced a leaking gasline (finally broke after I complained for 2 years of smelling gas everytime I filled my tank and they said everything was fine) but they didn’t seem to notice that the pipe that went to the gasline from the outside of the car also needed replacing. You shouldn’t assume people don’t understand what needs to get done on their car when because they have issues and you don’t. That is like you going to a doctor and being told you have issues and us going to the same one and being perfectly healthy. There are lemons. There are companies who used cheap parts during the recession and GM was one of them. Not sure why you are so adiment that all their cars are perfect and any issue someone has with a GM car is all in their heads.

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              1. The truth is all companies have good and bad models no matter the economy.

                Gas lines don’t break over two years and only smell when you fill the car. Odds are youy just smelled gas from the tank and the line just rusted out two totally unrelated issues.

                Tires do not fail on one trip with a bushing issues. Did you not notice?

                You appear to have little working knowledge on a car and it does not help when you take things in as you either get taken advantage of or have expectations of things that just are not the issue.

                Mechanics are like doctors and cars have become very complex to the point somethings can be difficult to locate or find wrong. This is why most electrical items are now detected by the computer as you can find them otherwise.

                I never said all cars are perfect they are as flawed as the people that own them. The greatest issue in dealing with people today is most have no clue on how even the most basic systems work. They can always tell you what the car is doing correctly and often the part is not some simple thing to diagnose. It can be a real challenge to be a mechanic today vs. years ago.

                Just as doctors do not always get it right as not ever person is hard wired the same way and different people can have different reactions to things.

                As in life there are no absolutes.

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  4. I read many of the stories being presented at the GM ignition switch trials. A disturbing majority of the publicized testimonies involved drunk driving, falling asleep at the wheel, and general negligent driving of some form or another.

    Attributing 174 deaths to an ignition switch is disingenuous at best. The cases I saw were primarily car accidents that happened due to external causes, but resulted in failed airbag deployment when the keys switched off, which may have contributed to a fatality.

    That’s not to say the part in question wasn’t faulty and potentially hazardous to owners, or that GM management should be absolved of responsibility. The government fine was justified, bad publicity was justified, but something about our victim culture in the 21st century just deeply bothers me.

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    1. Much of this boils down to the culture of legal representation that is willing to take cases that are often not legitimate to the real cause or just out lies in hopes of a settlement just to go away.

      Many companies have faced cases where they were clearly in the right on a issue due to lies but yet they settle as it is cheaper to settle than fight claims.

      In this case GM took and settled with nearly all the legitimate claims to a tune of nearing a Billion dollars even in the marginal cases where the air bag working would have not even made a difference.

      These final cases are mostly people wanting more money or just out and out lies as we have seen in some of these cases that have been made public.

      I was shocked when the judge told those who were suing the theater in Colorado for the shooting that they had no case and that they should drop their claims. They did not and now are on the hook for the legal fees the theater incurred defending themselves. This should be more the norm to get rid of the many of these corporate black mail.

      If you have a legitimate case then take it but if the lawyer says let me take this and you just pay me 70% if we get a settlement and nothing if we don’t these cases would go away.

      While corporations are not always honest the legal representation are far from the hero in the white suits too.

      Many fail to understand that because of how this legal system is just the high cost of car insurance is because of it. I had a person turn in front of me and ran me off the road. I walked away with air bag burns and cuts but alive and happy I got to go home. Yet all I asked for was my car repaired and the Insurance company pretty much paid me money not to take them to court even though I did not ask for it or really want it. To them it was their only protection.

      I saw this and though how screwed up is this world. My car was fixed better than new and the cash was more than enough to take care of any value loss of the air bag going off. There is another story. You lose a great amount of resale if the air bag goes off even in minor damage as I had. Two bumper covers and a radiator. Plus an air bag yet they will nick me for it thanks to the legal system.

      I do agree this has become a victim society anyone. If it is not something like this it becomes race, handicap. gender or just what ever someone can cook up because they did not get their way.

      Yet we still have people like many of the Asians that came here post war with nothing now highly educated and successful in business on their own hard work and strong family values. Also people like my father who was paralyzed but went back to work and asked for nothing special and retired after 30 plus years with nary a complaint. His faith and work ethic never let him complain or expect a favor.

      If we had the kind of society we have now 200 years ago we would have failed miserably.

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  5. I find the comments on this page to be disturbing, to say the least. The comments all minimalize the terrible crime committed by General Motors. Let’s start at the very beginning of this fiasco. General Motors knowingly allowed cars to operate with a faulty ignition switch. They knowingly placed millions of people in peril because they did not want to incur the cost of recalling the switch. They changed the part number on this switch which hindered the discovery of the defect in the switch. They did all this knowing they were placing people in danger of injury and death. Once the ignition switch fiasco was made public, General Motors attempted to deny the families of the victims compensation by claiming that the switch problem was a facet of the ” old GM” and fought vehemently in the courts to not have to pay for the company’s negligent actions. General Motor’s actions were heartless and, in my opinion, criminal.

    Laura Christian has fought tirelessly and diligently to bring the facts of this case to the public and has stood up and demanded that General Motors be accountable for their actions.
    She has been the voice for her own dead daughter as well as of the many others that General Motors so casually sent to their deaths. She will not allow the dead to be forgotten.Nor will she allow the public to forget who is responsible for the deaths of these individuals. Laura should be heralded for her actions. Those who wish to seek to disparage her person make me feel little else but disdain, as the best defense they can provide for GM’s disgusting behaviour is to try and attack the character of the victims and their spokesperson. General Motors chose to ignore an ignition switch problem which endangered the lives of millions and injured and killed innocent drivers. Now, they should choose to face what they have done and suffer the social and financial consequences. Take your medicine, GM.

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    1. Laura Christian is no hero. Her daughter died from multiple bad decisions, not an ignition switch. Laura Christian is a selfish creature who just wants money, money she’s not entitled to considering she gave her daughter up. Condemn GMs actions when it’s their fault, but let’s not immortalize a fraud.

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      1. Laura’s daughter died in a car where the failed ignition switch resulted in an airbag that did not deploy. The poor decisions of the young lady before this moment do not delineate the fact that GM chose to not recall the faulty ignition switch in her car and this fact contributed to this young lady’s death. I will say it again, HER AIRBAG DID NOT DEPLOY. GM made a poor decision long before this young lady did. Let’s focus on the real villains and stop making excuses for their horrible behaviours.

        As to Laura giving up her child for adoption, this is not a negative or unloving act. Loving mothers give up their children so that the child can have a better life whether it be financially or emotionally. It is an act of extreme sacrifice to give up someone you love in order to benefit them. It is a much more selfish act to keep a child when you are unable to care for him/her. I am certain that it was extremely heartbreaking for her to see her daughter die so young and so trajically. I find the entire line of commenting in regards to Laura giving up her daughter to be distasteful, ignorant and irrelevant to the subject.

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        1. Airbags are literally designed to work in conjunction with a seatbelt, especially frontal airbags. By driving without the belt as the daughter did, you circumvent the safety of the vehicle.

          Seatbelts are statistically more effective at saving lives than airbags, and not wearing a seatbelt renders an airbag far less effective, or in some cases dangerous, because your body is not restrained where it’s intended to be.

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          1. One can pull apart the accident scene piece by piece and provide a multitude of reasons why GM MIGHT not be responsible for the death of Laura Christian’s daughter but none of these ” maybes” can change the facts. The fact is that GM did not recall an ignition switch which was faulty and this cruel act placed people in peril when they were driving their vehicles. Laura Christian’s daughter’s airbag did not deploy because of this switch. It did not deploy because of the choice of GM to save a few dollars. That airbag could have saved a young girl’s life. That is a fact. It is also a fact that Laura Christian has acted as a leader and a voice for many other people who lost loved ones due to GM’s CHOICE to not recall a faulty part that was worth mere pennies. She offers moral support to the grieving and works to change a system of business that places money above human life. I admire her tenacity.

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            1. There is no pulling apart here.

              GM was part of the accident since the ignition failed but they did not cause the accident that Amber had.

              The issue here is she was speeding and drunk when she drove off the road at twice the speed limit hitting a tree.

              Now GM issue here is the key went off when the car hit the tree. It may have been a bad switch going to accesory due to the force of the impact that prevented the bag from going off.

              As it stands bag or no bag the odds of survival of this kind of crash are remote. Even if she had had a belt on hitting a tree at the velocity she did usually has catastrophic results.

              There is no pulling apart here. I am using all the facts not just the ones convenient to my cause.

              I hope I have made it clear that I do not absolve GM here. I so place the main focus of the death at the hands of the driver who did not take due care to use the car properly in a safe condition and use the belt that is the primary line of safety in any car.

              I do not begrudge the settlement her family got from GM as it is what it is.

              What I do see though is a woman who had nothing to do with this girl for 15 1/2 year of her 16 years on this planet now making a big issue in public about GM that only started when she did not get a settlement of her own.

              It may be her lawyer that is the driving force or it may be her but either way this all started because she did not get any money. If they had paid her in the first place you never would have heard of her.

              Sorry but not everyone in this world has pure motives when large amounts of money are involved. Just look at how many rip off government money for green efforts. They say they are saving the world but their only intention is to take the money and run.

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    2. That is ok as we find it disturbing to see your reasoning here.

      The deal is not many people inside GM knew. If you would understand how things like this happen it is easy for someone mid level to cover up their mistakes and just expect them to pass un noticed. The higher up people set budgets and volumes for the others to meet and generally these things are just numbers to them. The guy who is trying to meet the numbers makes a call to meet them only to find out he made a mistake. So to save his job he acts like nothing happened. For the longest while no one understood the air bags were not active as the key only goes back one notch. Generally only an engineer would have known and even then they would have had to look for it.

      Laura has only fought for money. If her daughter was so important to here where was she the first 15.5 years of her life. Yes she had only been in contact with her for the last year or less of her life.

      GM should be held guilty in cases where they are the direct cause of the death and the air bag not going off. I have no issue with that. But in many of these cases I have read that was not always the case.

      In this case Amber was driving drunk and went off the end of the street at nearly 70 MPH through a field and into a tree head on. From the reports I read the tree pretty much was in her lap and there is no air bag that was going to save her. Even if she had worn the belt the results would have been the same. It was more the speed that killed her not the lack of an air bag.

      What gets left out is how much money GM had paid out before this hit the news and many of the cases in the news are only the ones where families refused the settlement or the case was not legit and GM refused to pay and chose to fight it. As we are seeing a little more than half are getting tossed and the others are now being settled.

      The truth is if she had been there for her daughter she may have been the one to teach her not to drink at 16, not to drive drunk, not to speed and to wear a seat belt. So because she was not there for her does that make her negligent? Now I do not expect her to be charged but life has ways of working out in not fair ways and many mistakes are always made. The designer of the ignition had no intentions of killing anyone and never knew that this could be the result. Most people had no idea the air bags did not work until they tracked it down.

      We do not disparage the mother here only her actions as her motives are clear. I am sure she feels loss and regret but her resolve has only gotten stronger and louder as the longer she never was paid a settlement. But in her case she has no legal right to one as she was no longer the legal guardian or parent of Amber. They are the ones who were paid a large settlement as they spent their lives raising here.

      If you are that concerned there are many more windmills out there yet that need to be tipped but yet you defend a woman who has no right to anything as the case was solved and the rightful people were were awarded the money.

      There were way more issues in many other cases and this will not be the last. Cars are complex things and with as damaged as GM was during this time culturally I am shocked worse did not happen. I could give you a long list of models and automakers who have been in a similar case that have done less and got away with much more over the years and we will see this again at some point.

      Of the near billion dollars paid out you never heard many of the cases. Many were legitimate and GM paid with no delay or defense. In others like the girl in the back seat with a drunk speeding driver they paid her family even though an air bag would have done nothing to save her. Yes you hear little on these cases as GM just paid up with out a fight. Now in this case they had paid to rightful family and we have a woman just making a lot of noise because she did not get money for a daughter she barely knew.

      I don’t expect you to agree but we need to keep perspective here.

      Why do I know a lot on these cases. I own one of these cars myself. I also am a mechanic and know the workings of these vehicles. I wanted to know just what was happening and found in many cases people died not because of the air bag but lack of belt and speed were often part of the issue.

      I also understand the steering still worked so pulling over was always an option. Also I know the power brakes still work as there is a check valve in the line that retains vacuum to stop the car should the engine stop.

      Because of my working knowledge and the many times I have had customer cars stall when trying to find an issue I knew these cars were still drivable even with the engine off. I wanted to know why people died and often it was the other factors that were the real result of the death.

      Generally a stalled engine is just a simple thing as pulling over. Cars at speed are easy to turn and they still have brakes.

      I do agree GM should be held in the cases where they are at fault but in cases where people did not do the things to remain alive like the simple act and law of wearing a belt they should not.

      While we have a lack of corporate responsibility issue in this country we have an even worse lack of personal responsibility in this country that feeds it. We reward people for bad behavior and then send them to work. What do you expect?

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    3. Sheila Z, very well said! Regardless of the motives and character of the victims, GM is still very much guilty for the crime of negligence and putting their customers at risk! And they deserve to pay dearly for it! However, there is truth and fairness regarding the opposing views. At the end of the day, my condolences go out to every victim of this tragedy, but let’s not overlook the poor decisions and judgement by the victims that lead to several of their untimely and unfortunate deaths! Neither should we ignore the leeches and scam artists trying to cash in on this tragedy as well! (I’m not accusing Laura Christian of such). It’s a shame that our society tolerates this evil….From the companies and the public!

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  6. If all Laura Christian is guilty of is trying to ensure they enact federal law holding auto executives criminally liable for staying silent on auto safety issues and. to ban the sale of used cars nationwide that have been recalled until repaired, then some of the comments here seem a rather harsh indictment of her character and motives. To have made the waves it takes to become the spokeswoman of this group and cause so much anxiety, fear, and aggression among the acid tongued GM trolls here who callously attacked her and her daughter is indicative of how damaging this movement is to GM. The GM media Juggernaut has been unable to take the bad taste out of the ,mouths of consumers with their tired old “heartbeat of America” hogwash because of the 174 flat lined hearts they chose not to defibrillate by failing to fix a problem they were well aware existed. Whether or not she gets any money to ensure the safety for the rest of us concerns me not in the least. The people who delayed the recall got payed, so why not the woman who is trying to prevent it from happening again? If nothing else the GM recall Survivors group is a safe place with a support group atmosphere where people whose lives were destroyed by GM can come and try to make sense of what was done to them and, find some comfort and closure. Which is a hell of a lot more than GM did for many of these families. Keep up the good work, Laura.

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    1. GM Media juggernaut??
      Maybe your Television is tuned into the 1950s.

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  7. I think a reminder is in order…airbags are a supplemental safety system. They are designed to work with the other safety systems in the car, not by themselves. The number 1 requirement to make airbags more effective is to properly wear a seatbelt.

    As we see on a daily basis, even everything working together, death still occurs. Is Tesla to be held liable for the gentleman who died while not properly using their super cruise technology? I think not.

    My current car, a Pontiac G8, was purchased with many modifications on it. When I first got it, it would sometimes stall when RPMs dropped quickly (like taking the car out gear to coast). It did this dozens of times while driving, many times while driving in areas with higher rates of speed (60+). I never had a problem controlling the car when it happened. I just calmly restarted the car while coasting and continued on my way. Eventually I was able to work out the issue and it’s never done it again. If it had never gotten fixed I am confident I would have never wrecked because of it. Why? Because wrecks are caused by something other than mechanical failure in the majority of cases. Distracted driving and drunk driving are the greatest offenders by far. Airbags don’t save stupidity.

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    1. And another point is that GM has taken corrective actions, they have issued more recalls than any other manufacturer over the past 2+ years, they have willingly paid out almost $1 billion for legitimate cases. They have put stop sales on some vehicles. Why does Ms. Christian continue to demonize GM in her crusade if she doesn’t want money? They are the one manufacturer that has been, at least outwardly, transparent. How about Volkswagen…think they stopped at defeat devices? Ask those injured or killed by Takata airbags how they feel about Honda. They have recalled almost 14 million vehicles this year because of them. They had a large stake in Takata at one point. Funny how they divested themselves before this debacle. Up until a few months ago had a 2001 Accord, which is part of a longer term recall. A 16 year old vehicle. So, which is worse, airbags not going off or airbags going off? What else don’t we know about?

      Reply
      1. Jon R this quote sums up Ms. Christian….

        “Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster… for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.”

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      2. We know joh R you worked for gm so your input on this matter is useless. (Next time use a different name that will not match to a Facebook profile of a former GM employee)

        We also know that GM has gotten dealerships to post on anti-Gm sites, fb pages, ect and I’ve taken screenshots to back this up.

        The bottom line is GM is guilty on a few things.

        1.) FRAUD – False/misleading & deceptive advertising VEHICLES as safe when gm knew they were unsafe. And all who bought defective vehicle’s should by law get their money back because the sale of their vehicle was sold Illegally.

        2.) negligence and putting their customers at risk! Again they knew of issues but still kept adding them to vehicles and selling the vehicles as safe when GM knew they was unsafe.

        Yea maybe they do have a fix. But thats not the point. The point is is that if i knew of issue do you think I would have bought the vehicle? No. So since vehicle was sold to me illegally as a fraudulent sale Im still technically the owner of the money that was given to GM and I by law should get a FULL REFUND plus interest.

        Reply
        1. Good luck with it man. I guarantee every car company has vehicles on the road with some sort of issue. You fail to recognize Ford, Toyota, Honda, just to name a few, that have also put millions of people’s lives at stake at least as recently as GM. Let’s not forget Volkswagen which knowingly used defeat devices to pass emissions tests and marketed their vehicles as clean.

          Your research is terrible by the way. I have spent my life in 2 locations…Pittsburgh, pa and Huntsville, al. Please inform all these people where GM has plants or offices in these areas? I have worked supporting NASA for the past 12 years. Nice try though.

          Reply
          1. Nothing in Pittsburgh and only a Rocket plant in Huntsville.

            To me you do not appear as a GM employee. You appear to be someone who just has a grasp of reality.

            I get called the same but I have never one day worked for GM. I do work in the auto performance industry and have worked with all MFG at some point. I also am a student of the industry reading and keeping up with what is going on as my industry relies on the automakers.

            What they do effects my products and I have to know where they are going and what they are doing.

            I did have a great uncle who was a lead GM engineer from the 20’s to the 60’s and he taught me much on how GM worked or in many cases did not work.

            Also I own a Fiero and have written much history on the car. It is a classic show case of how bad GM did business internally. The car was built under cover and canceled several times. Pontiac hid it at a engineering firm Entech. They then called it a commuter car to fool the GM leaders knowing full and well they were building a sports car.

            They had little budget and had to use the parts bin to build the car and not get the suspension they wanted till the last year.

            Chevy took notice when they built a turbo car and even a V8 Fiero and out ran the Corvette at the test track. Being the car was half the price of the Corvette Chevy could not stand for internal competition. They worked their GM leaders to kill the car.

            GM made a lot of enemies at Pontiac as they sold their soul to the UAW to cut deals that got cut short. There was a lot of bad blood for years over this and even today some will not speak openly about it. That is how bad things were.

            Literally for decades GMs left hand did not know what the right hand was doing. They still built some decent cars but often would leave them underfunded to finish the interiors or other aspects as they were slowly going broke.

            Today they have money and are funding cars as they should. This is why they have much better product today. It will only get better with higher profits and a much better culture that Mary is putting in place.

            Reply
        2. You do realize the number of cars with bad ignitions were relatively small.

          The part was fixed and the engineer who did the cover up did not change the part number to hide his mistake.

          Because of this GM has had to replace all of the ignitions.

          The fact is the majority of these cars were safe and if not they are now once the recall was done. I own one and have no issues with it before or after the recall. Generally any of the bad ones were very noticeable as the key would turn un naturally easy due to the lack of tension.

          Stop playing a victim here and if you don’t like it trade the car for some other brand.

          You appear to represent many of the false claims GM is now weeding out that are false or just flat unreasonable.

          I expect you also thing the government should pay your way thought life on every level with free everything too.

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      3. Why didn’t GM issue the ignition switch recall in the first place? Why weren’t those who knew about the dangers ,that millions of drivers were facing,criminally charged? A bunch of recalls, after the fact, will not bring the dead back to life. Too little, too late as the saying goes.

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        1. Thats the main reasons why we refuse to get ours done. And want a full refund.

          If the recall was not forced General Motors today would still consider the vehicles safe to drive.

          And so this was a forced recall Im taking it as GM was not forced and is still considering my vehicle safe to drive without the recall.

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        2. Shelia you really need to get caught up on how bad GM was internally until the Chapter 11. The internal culture was a train wreck.

          I would recommend the Bob Lutz book Car Guys VS Bean Counters. This book was written by Bob after he left GM and was about the damaged culture he found when he arrived.

          The stories he tells are amazing about how much damage GM was doing to itself. Toyota was not their worst enemy it was their own divisions fighting each other.

          Things like identical parts being sold to them under different numbers for much higher prices, The case where Bob asked the engineer why GM could not get the body panel fit of a Hyundai. The engineer said because we were never told to do it. He claimed they could not do it unless told to. Bob told him and for less than $300K they made class leading body panels on the 08 Malibu and from then on with the rest of the cars.

          The case here with the ignition I have surmised and read that the engineer in charge was rewarded to keep under budget and on time. If he failed to meet the numbers management gave him he would not get his bonus. So when the part came in and they later found it was out of spec he let it go. Why because he would not get his bonus. When he did go to fix it he then made a new part and then did not put a new part number on the good ignition as is the common practice.

          Well by the time GM found out there were issues they did not know what cars and what years as only some of them had the bad ignition and not all were bad. When the part number was not changed they had no idea how to tell them apart.

          Much of this cluster got caught up in the middle managers and finally got to the top and then they finally started to react. This was when they started to make the part under a different part number with a key with a hole and not a slot so it could be identified on sight.

          As to how long and who knew there just is no way to prove it but with the piss poor way GM communicated I would say it was a small group for a long time till it went public.

          The one good thing I did like about this was Bob has started a Culture change to remove the BS that they had been doing and the old GM leaders fought him on it. Mary came in and took over and they gave her trouble continuing Bobs changes. But once this crisis hit it gave her the upper hand and much has changed since then, She still has some resistance but she has changed more at GM than has changed in 75 years.

          The fact is there are much more deadly cars in our past and even now the Cobalt barely makes the top 5 with deaths per million cars built.

          More died in the Pinto and even the Explorer. The Crown Vic had more deaths by fire than the Cobalt.

          The fact is an air bag alone is not going to save you with out a belt or in a crash where you hit a tree so hard it penetrates the cabin.

          You do realize Amber did not have a belt on and the tree she hit came into the car. She was going almost 70 MPH when she left the road and hit the tree.

          A similar accident in Indiana where two boys 16 drunk and no license went off the road at high speed. They too hit a tree so hard they had to amputate the boys legs as they hit the tree so hard his legs went though the floor. Sorry air bags help but they are not the fix for high impacts with no belts. Read your owners manual and they say to never drive with an air bag an no belt. Most cars have it on the visor.

          There was a large number of deaths due to air bags and unbelted drivers over the years that exceeded the number here on this car. Generally broken necks. It is why they say not put any kids in the front seat anymore too.

          Having experienced an air bag first hand I can tell you of the damage they can do just on their own. While it may lessen the crash injuries they can burn and cut you. Also they can break bones if you have your arm in the way. Broken wrist are common. It is the lesser of two evils but they are powerful and with no belt they are much less helpful.

          So if you are going to condemn GM here I hope you are consistent can condemn each and every company that has had similar issues of the years. If you called for all of them to be shut down we would be walking with a lot of unemployed people.

          As for charges prove it. Generally there is not enough evidence to charge anyone and if they did it would only be involuntary manslaughter as when they made their discussions they did not expect people to die. Cars stall every day and do not crash, The one key here they did not find till the recall was the air bags were not going off due to the crash impact. The keys were not just going off down the road most of these deaths were from a crash that the driver caused and the air bag just did not go after the impact knocked the key out of on.

          As stated before the car still steers and the power brakes still work once you turn a key to accessory. If it is in gear it will not lock.

          This is a sad situation but it happened and there is no going back. The fix is being done and the families that even remotely deserved a settlement got one. Right now GM is just cleaning up the claims that were not legit or where people refused the claim in hopes for more money.

          Reply
          1. It is naive of anyone to believe that only a small number of people knew about the failing ignition switch. I understand the difference between what can be proven and the reality of the situation not to mention the importance that executives place upon deniability. They knew and did not care about the risk in which they placed the public.

            Frankly, it matters little to me whether or not Amber was wearinga seatbelt or speeding as these issues are not relevant to the discussion at hand. ( if you would like to adjourn to another forum regarding driving behaviours, I would be happy to comment on this, there) Any discussions as to the victims behaviours are merely attempts at distracting readers from GM’s despicable actions. GM chose to hide an ignition defect from vehicle owners. This is an act that is beyond evil. The ignition defect killed people. You can make all the excuses in the world attempting to prove that air bags don’t save lives, that steering a vehicle without power steering does not affect your ability to control the car and that power breaks and no power breaks are the same thing but I would have to be an idiot to buy into that malarkey. GM did not care about the people that they harmed and attempted to deny responsibility for their actions by blaming it on the ” old GM”. Another atrocious act. Laura has heroically striven to keep these facts in the public eye. She will not let GM sweep their atrocities under the rug. Laura’s determination is to be admired. Let GM never doubt this fact : WE WILL REMEMBER.

            Reply
            1. It would not be naive to think this if you would just do some study time on just how GM went bankrupt. If you have spent much time around a company you will find one of the weakest areas is communication. Things are communicated in such poor ways most suffer many competitive issues because of it.

              Having taken the time to learn how GM failed it easily shows how they nearly killed the company because of this.

              As for speed, Drink and Belts it is all a factor as not just one but all three contributed to her death if not as the primary cause.

              As for the mechanical aspect disprove that you can not drive a car with no power steering. I have done it many times when driving a customers car and having it stall. You do realize cars used to come with no power steering. In fact I am about to go drive one now.

              As for power brakes all companies put in a check valve that retains the vacuum to prevent the lost of power in the brakes so you can stop should a car stall out.

              This is not malarkey it is just you do not want to accept the truth.

              You must have a seriously poor life if human atrocity upsets you. Not deflecting from GM but what about Syria and the deaths from Heroin? I could give you a long list of things. What about N Korea starving their people for weapons and building a nuke to kill Americans?

              There is a whole lot to think about and Laura showed she did not even want to raise this girl and now is willing to fight this hard against an automaker? Do the math!

              There are a few people left with pure hearts but very few. Laura and her past actions about the lawsuit have shown her intentions. None of her actions took place till GM said Amber’s settlement was done with her legal family.

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  8. Also why did GM get a small slap on the wrist when VW was almost bankrupt?.

    Also the 900 million gm paid was not really GM that paid. It was the taxpayers of The United States of America and Canada.

    Also human life does not have a price. Did the victims get any or that 900 million? No.

    And when i mean victims i mean

    1 ) death victims (Family’s members) & Injury Victims
    2.) Victims of Fraudulent sale of Vehicles

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  9. I do gotta ask everyone who says Laura is in it for the money.

    What money? All i see is Laura bringing awareness and trying to make GM and other Auto makers more acceptable for their companies actions.

    Yes she has asked for donations and as you can see with the billboard being put up she is not in it for the money. You know how much it costs for a billboard to be put up?? A lot. So stop bashing Laura.

    What have the bashers done to bring awareness? Pooh all so STFU.

    Reply
    1. Laura has gone to GM several times with a lawyer to get a settlement. She was turned down as the family that adopted and raised her daughter for 16 years got the settlement.

      Since then she has only tried to make high profile noise with the help of her legal adviser to get a settlement from GM.

      If GM would pay her a few Million the lawyer would take 70% of it, She would sign a non disclosure and never speak of this again.

      Time to get in the real world and understand the truth that is play with this woman.

      These are not bashes this is what is going on. We have watched her from the start and seen all her actions and how she was mad getting turned down for a claim.

      If she was so concerned about her daughter where was she the first 15.5 years of her life. You do realize she had just reconnected with her just a few months prior.

      The Family that raiser her as her own made the deal with GM and Laura is just up set she saw nothing.

      The truth is in todays world when money is big people can act all concerned. We also saw it when Lebron James signed his deal with the Cavs. His father who vanished long ago came out and wanted to be buddies again. He had to dispatch him fast. There were several others who came out and tried to claim a piece of the action for themselves.

      It is amazing how concerned people can get when a lot of money is in play.

      Reply
      1. Those who bash Laura have never fought a huge corporation and have no idea as to the toll it takes on a person. There is a ton of speculation as to what Laura’s motives might be but let’s stick to the facts. The fact is ,Laura has brought attention to GM and their despicable actions. Laura has raised awareness of how little human life means to this company. She continues to stand for better regulations to ensure companies are responsible to the public for their behaviours. Laura has striven to ensure that the public does not forget what GM knowingly did to its consumers. These are the facts. Her motives are her own but her actions benefit us all.

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        1. So you finally figured out life is not fair. This is why you chose your battles carefully.

          Laura has shown clearly from the start that she and her lawyer are working for money.

          As for her actions where the hell was she the first 15 years of Ambers life? Who knows if she had taken the time to raise her and teach her not to drink and drive she would be alive.

          People as do corporations make bad decisions. There is a price to pay be in monetarily or with a life.

          This was a case where both parties made serious mistakes and the ones made by not wearing a belt and driving drunk were directly related with the high speed crash where the air bag may or may not have done any good.

          Why is Laura not putting up bill boards that state not to drink and Drive? Why is there no buckle up or die billboard? How about Speed kills when you hit a tree at 70 MPG?

          All the fight for GM is about is she clearly wants money.

          I bet you are one of the few outside the White House that believe the Billions we gave back Iran will not fund Terroist?

          What do you expect GM to do at this point? Shut their doors and put millions out of work? There is no soild proof other than one engineer who said he did this and covered it up. The best you could get is Man Slaughter and a suspended sentence.

          How about we make GM pay a billion dollars to the families directly related to the victims, then fine them billions more. Then we drag them though the negative media for a couple years? Hey we have already been doing that.

          Sorry If Mary Barra did not take one of her kids and strap them in a car and drive them over a cliff for you.

          One day you will find out this is not Pollyanna utopia and that it is far from a perfect world. People live and die daily and not always in a fair way. Having just lost my two parents in some very drastic ways I know the pain but not much one can do about it.

          This deal will linger with many for decades such as the Corvair deal but like most other things it will be forgotten. Even today we have people show little care or respect about 9/11 and the groups responsible for it that are looking to repeat their actions just because they hate us and we are not of their religion.

          It will be interesting to see if GM pays her and I wager 100% you will never hear fromLaura again.

          Reply
          1. Laura is standing up for victims. GM wanted to deny responsibility to the victims. Laura is ensuring that the public will never forget. Laura is bringing the truth to the public. These are all acts that benefit the general populace. GM works to benefit itself. This is a forum about GM, not driving behaviours. GM screwed up and there is a price to pay. There is no defense for their behaviours to the drivers who purchased their products.

            Reply

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