GM Switch Victim’s Lawyer Says Ignition Files Show Cover-Up – Bloomberg Business

GM Switch Victim’s Lawyer Says Ignition Files Show Cover-Up – Bloomberg Business

By Margaret Cronin Fisk and David Welch

General Motors Co. executives participated in a cover-up of ignition-switch defects for years before 2014 recalls, according to lawyers for a family whose wrongful-death lawsuit led to the callback of more than 2.5 million cars.

Documents produced under seal for the suit show GM management and engineers knew the switch raised safety issues and ignored the problem, attorney Lance Cooper said Monday at a press conference on the settlement of the case. This contradicts conclusions in the so-called Valukas report, a GM-paid study on the carmaker’s failings released last year, he said. GM Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra has said she didn’t know about the seriousness of the defect until early last year.

“Valukas chalked it up to incompetence,” Cooper said. “It was a cover-up.”