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News agency Reuters has carried out an analysis of US government fatal crash data involving GM cars. It says 74 people have died in GM cars in circumstances similar to 13 other deaths related to faulty ignition switches in GM vehicles.
The analysis also revealed that such accidents took place more regularly in GM vehicles than in rivals’ cars.
The data was drawn from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) – a database of vehicle-related deaths comprising information from local law enforcement agencies, specifically relating to frontal collisions in which airbags failed to deploy and in which the driver or front-seat passenger died.
The analysis looked at the Chevrolet Cobalt and Saturn Ion, the two highest-profile models in the recall of 2.6m vehicles by GM relating the ignition switch problem. According to Reuters, the Ion had 5.9 ‘FARS’ crashes per 100,000. This compares to 4.1 for the Cobalt, 2.9 for the Ford Focus, 1.6 for the Honda Civic and 1.0 for the Toyota Corolla.
It is not clear if GM used the FARS system to analyse crashes involving its vehicles.
The news came shortly before US car sales figures were released for May. Despite these ongoing problems and possible issues with brand reputation, GM reported a year-on-year sales increase of 12.6 per cent, much of which was down to sales of its Corvette model.
Chrysler said its sales had also risen – by 17 per cent. This has been largely attributed to a 58 per cent rise in sales of its Jeep models.
Ford too reported a 3 per cent year-on-year rise, driven by strong SUV sales.
While US car sales are traditionally strong in May, an extra weekend is also thought to have helped boost figures.
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