By Jeff Bennett
Lawmakers intensified the political pressure on General Motors
Co. Friday, calling on U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to require
the auto maker to establish a victims fund to compensate those who
have lost loved ones or were injured in crashes linked to faulty
ignition switches.
"We write to request your immediate intervention and assistance
on behalf of victims of severe damage--financial harm, physical
injury, and death--resulting from serious ignition switch defects
in General Motors cars," according to a copy of the letter signed
by five U.S. senators. "Without your active involvement, they may
have no meaningful remedy."
The senators also asked Mr. Holder and the Justice Department to
intervene in pending civil actions to oppose any action by GM to
deny responsibility for consumer damages on the basis those damages
may have resulted from deceptive and fraudulent concealment by the
auto maker.
The letter comes a day after GM Chief Executive Mary Barra
suspended with pay two engineers involved in the design of the
switch and the launch of the Chevrolet Cobalt in which the switch
was installed. The auto maker is investigating why it took nearly a
decade to initiate a recall on the switch that has now been linked
to 13 deaths.
Those switches can slip from the "on" to "accessory" position.
That causes engines to stall, thereby cutting power to the air bags
and stopping them from deploying.
Representatives from GM and the Justice Department couldn't
immediately be reached for comment.
Ms. Barra announced earlier this month that consultant Kenneth
Feinberg has been hired to examine what steps GM should take to
respond to families of crash victims. He is expected to issue a
report by the end of May. Ms. Barra also has met with victims'
families and apologized for the recall delay.
The letter was signed by senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.),
Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Bob Casey
(D-Penn.) and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii).
"We know that you share our strong feeling that innocent victims
of these defective cars--whose life-changing injuries and deaths
resulted from GM's pernicious and purposeful misconduct--should be
fairly compensated, and that justice should be done through
appropriate criminal enforcement," according to the letter.
Meanwhile, it likely will take another week before a federal
judge in Texas rules on a request directing GM to tell owners of
recalled cars to park them until they are fixed. The judge has
requested more documentation before issuing a ruling.
Write to Jeff Bennett at jeff.bennett@wsj.com
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