GM Executives Avoid Prosecution for 124 Deaths Caused by Cover-Up of Faulty Ignition Switches

The Obama administration has once again allowed a big corporation to buy its way out of jail.
This time, the corporation is General Motors, which on Thursday was fined (pdf) $900 million for covering up its faulty ignition switches that caused at least 124 deaths.
The company, which is charged with wire fraud and a scheme to mislead a government regulator, also scored an agreement with the government that allows prosecution to be delayed for three years. During that time, its safety practices will be subject to independent monitoring. “If G.M. adheres to the agreement…the company can have its record wiped clean,” wrote The New York Times’ Danielle Ivory and Bill Vlasic.
“I don’t understand how they can basically buy their way out of it,” Margie Beskau, whose daughter Amy Rademaker was killed in an October 2006 crash, told the Times. “They knew what they were doing and they kept doing it.”
Thousands of GM cars built from 2005 to 2010 had the faulty ignition switch, which could cause the car’s engine to switch off without warning. GM engineers knew early on that the switch was problematic, but didn’t start using a replacement for several years and didn’t begin recalling affected vehicles until February 2014.
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