GM lawyers and executives have four weeks to address a detailed request they can't blow off.
It's a "special order" from federal regulators, as David Shepardson describes in The Detroit News:
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration sent General Motors Co. a 27-page list of 106 questions Tuesday about its handling of the recall of 1.6 million older cars for ignition switch problems linked to 13 deaths and 31 crashes when frontal air bags didn’t deploy.
The request from NHTSA’s general council was sent to Carmen Benavides, GM’s director of product investigations, and directs GM to respond by April 3. . . .
GM could be fined up to $35 million or face criminal prosecution if it doesn’t fully comply — a standard warning NHTSA makes in all formal requests for information in recall investigations. The letter seeks detailed answers to questions about what GM knew and when during the 10 years leading up to the recall.
"We will hold ourselves accountable and improve our processes," CEO Mary Barra vows. (GM photo)
A spokesman at the firm's downtown Detroit headquarters says what he has to:
"We are fully cooperating with NHTSA and we welcome the opportunity to help the agency have a full understanding of the facts,” GM spokesman Alan Adler said.
Adler also makes obligatory points about "doing what we can now to ensure our customers’ safety and peace of mind" and being "committed to fixing this problem in a manner that earns their trust."
Shepardson, who covers the industry from Washington, D.C., provides background:
GM announced early last week it was doubling the size of the recall to 1.62 million worldwide, including about 1.37 million in the United States — after initially saying it only needed to recall about half the vehicles. . . .
The National Highway Safety Administration said it was opening a formal investigation into the timeliness of GM’s recall. . . .
On Tuesday GM CEO Mary Barra vowed to hold the company accountable for the chain of the events. . . . "We will hold ourselves accountable and improve our processes so our customers do not experience this again,” said Barra. . . .
A chronology that GM turned over to NHTSA last week showed GM downplayed the ignition switch issue in prior years, including canceling in 2005 an approved redesign of the ignition key head.
Earlier at Deadline Detroit:
New York Times: GM Could Face Criminal Probe Over Faulty Ignition Switches, March 3
