GM ordered switches weeks before recall

Associated Press

DETROIT

Emails released in a court case show that General Motors Co. ordered a half-million replacement ignition switches nearly two months before telling the government that its small cars should be recalled because the switches were defective.

The emails, released Monday by Texas personal-injury attorney Robert Hilliard, once again raise questions about what GM knew about the defective switches and when, and how forthcoming the company was both in congressional testimony and in a GM-funded investigation into its conduct by former U.S. Attorney Anton Valukas.

They also are fodder for federal prosecutors who are investigating whether GM misled government safety regulators in the ignition-switch case.

The chain of emails involving lower-level GM workers and employees at Delphi Corp. seem to indicate that GM knew at least by Dec. 18, 2013, that the switches were the cause of air-bag nondeployment in certain models such as the Chevrolet Cobalt and needed to be recalled. The Valukas report, which didn’t mention the switch order, said GM executives didn’t decide internally on a recall until January 2014, and alerted the government about the decision Feb. 7. Also, the order was not mentioned when CEO Mary Barra subsequently testified before Congress.

The switches can slip out of the run position, causing engines in cars such as the Cobalt to stall. If that happens, the power steering, brakes and air bags are disabled, and people can lose control of their cars. GM eventually recalled 2.6 million small cars for the problem, which has caused at least 32 deaths.

The emails in the chain, which run from December into February, call the matter “urgent” and eventually use the words “safety issue.” The original order was made by a woman who works for an outside contractor for GM but has a GM email address.

GM says it is standard procedure to start the parts-ordering process before a recall decision is made. Messages were left Monday seeking comment from Valukas.

Federal prosecutors will have a “field day” with the emails, because the size, timing and cost of the parts order cast doubt on GM’s previous statements that senior management acted as soon as it found out about the problem, said Peter Henning, a former federal prosecutor who now is a law professor at Wayne State University in Detroit.

Someone higher up in GM, he said, would have had to authorize the parts order, and investigators will want to know who that was.