The public relations disaster for General Motors seems to be getting worse by the day.
Danielle Ivory of The New York Times writes that GM admitted on Wednesday that it had received reports of safety defects in cars linked to 12 deaths and at least 31 accident in 2001, not 2004 as previously disclosed.
The Times reports:
In an expanded chronology of events filed with federal safety regulators about the recall of 1.6 million cars, the automaker said that during the development of the Saturn Ion in 2001 it had found that the ignition switch could turn off easily, but that a design change “had resolved the problem.”
Then, in 2003, an internal inquiry said that a service technician observed the car stall after the ignition had switched off while driving. After seeing that a heavy key ring had worn out the switch, the technician replaced it, the chronology said, and the inquiry was then closed. (In documents released on Tuesday, G.M. lowered the number of deaths tied to the faulty switch to 12 from 13, saying it had mistakenly counted one fatality twice.)
