Death toll is at 23 from GM ignition switches

Associated Press

DETROIT

At least 23 people have died and 16 people have been seriously injured in crashes involving General Motors cars with defective ignition switches.

Attorney Kenneth Feinberg, who was hired by GM to compensate victims, updated the totals in an Internet posting Monday.

Feinberg says he has received 153 death claims since August. Of those, 23 have been deemed eligible for compensation payments, up from 21 last week.

Sixteen of the 714 injury claimants have also received compensation offers.

GM has acknowledged that it knew about faulty ignition switches in Chevrolet Cobalts and other small cars for more than a decade. Yet it didn’t recall them until February of this year. The switches can slip out of the “on” position, which causes the cars to stall, knocks out power steering and turns off the air bags.

Feinberg, who previously handled payments to victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the BP oil spill, began accepting claims Aug. 1 and has set a deadline of Dec. 31. He has said that GM hasn’t placed any limit on the amount of money that can be spent on settlements. GM has set aside $400 million for compensation, but says that could grow to $600 million.

Also Monday, the family of a 7-year-old New Bethlehem, Pa., boy who was injured in a crash caused by a faulty switch, accepted a settlement offer from Feinberg. Attorney Robert Hilliard said in a statement that the family of Trenton Buzard, who is now 7 years old, agreed to the undisclosed offer.

The settlement stems from an April 2, 2009, crash in which Trenton suffered spinal injuries that left him paralyzed from the chest down.