GM: Lawsuit over fatal crash renews concerns over GM sensor and safety

General Motors and its safety practices are back in the spotlight as the lawsuit over its sensors continues. It was also belatedly revealed that the U.S. automotive safety regulators reviewed the company’s case concerning its steering sensor, but GM was against opening an official probe on the issue.

Unreported NHTSA review

As per Reuters, it was informed by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration about a previous review that was never reported. The office said that it assessed information related to the legal case against GM that was filed by the widower of the 42-year-old woman Glenda Marie Buchanan who died from a car crash in 2014.

She was driving a 2007 Chevrolet Trailblazer when the accident happened and her widower, Lance Cooper, alleged in the lawsuit that the SUV’s steering sensor was defective, and this caused the crash. He further said that General Motors failed to warn vehicle owners about this defect despite already knowing there is an issue.

Cooper filed the lawsuit in 2016 at the Georgia court, and the case was updated in 2020. The litigation is currently ongoing amid GM’s denial about the allegations of its failure to take action on its supposedly flawed sensor and investigate the matter. The automaker also failed to warn drivers or recall the affected vehicles as per the suit.

While General Motors refuted the allegations, Cooper was said to have found proof in another case that helped uncover the company’s failure to recall vehicles with faulty ignition switches. This eventually led to the resolution of the charges against GM through the deferred prosecution agreement in 2015.

NHTSA’s recent decision

Upon the request of the regulators, GM submitted documents related to the recent case about the steering sensor. Then on Jan. 28, the NHTSA stated that the evidence is not sufficient to launch a formal investigation at this time.

The agency further stated that the vehicles that Cooper emphasized in the lawsuit were built before the U.S. regulators mandated the electronic stability control in September 2011. In response to the NHTSA decision, Cooper said he was disappointed that the agency decided not to pursue an investigation.

Meanwhile, General Motors also explained that it did not recall the vehicles after its own internal probe found it can’t establish if the electronic stability control was not functioning as it should at the time of Buchanan’s accident. The investigation can’t determine as well if the sensor was faulty.