US Fines General Motors $35M for Late Recalls
DETROIT -- The federal government today fined General Motors $35 million -- the maximum penalty the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration could impose -- for failing to report in a timely manner the ignition switch defect in Chevrolet Cobalts made at its Lordstown, Ohio, plant, and in its Saturn Ions and similar vehicles.
General Motors posted a statement on its website acknowledging the company has signed a consent order with the NHTSA.
“We have learned a great deal from this recall. We will now focus on the goal of becoming an industry leader in safety,” said the CEO of GM, Mary Barra. “We will emerge from this situation a stronger company.”
GM said it is working with NHTSA, and has already begun reviewing processes and policies to avoid future recalls of this nature.
“We are working hard to improve our ability to identify and respond to safety issues,” said Jeff Boyer, vice president of global vehicle safety, who is assigned to integrate safety policies across the company. “Among other efforts, GM has created a new group, the Global Product Integrity unit, to innovate our safety oversight; we are encouraging and empowering our employees to raise their hands to address safety concerns through our Speak Up for Safety initiative, and we have set new requirements for our engineers to attain Black Belt certification through Design for Six Sigma.”
Having signed this agreement, GM says it “now has its sights set on effectively serving customers and completing the ignition switch recall.”
Said Barra, “GM’s ultimate goal is to create an exemplary process and produce the safest cars for our customers – they deserve no less.”
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Detroit Free Press: GM to pay $35 million fine form NHTSA for acting too slowly in recall
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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