A little quick math here: Seven million vehicles, and 13 deaths possibly attributable to the malfunctioning of the ignition switch. The probability of a catastrophic failure of the switch is about 1.8 times 10 to the minus six. And considering the number of miles driven by these SEVEN MILLION CARS(!) the incidences of fatal failure per driven mile is barely calculable. It is bascially a decimal point, a large bunch of zeros, followed by a one.
For all practical purposes, it is NOT A DEFECT! It's a component that could be better and in fact GM made it better after the number of incidents was large enough to show up on its radar screen. But the product was good enough in the first place.
In fact, if our product liability legal environment were not such a cluster-fuck-windfall for plaintiffs and plaintiff lawyers, GM could make a very credible argument that the part is NOT DEFECTIVE, given the statistically insignificant number of failures, and the unusual circumstances that VERY OCCASIONALLY cause it to fail. Thus, they would have to pay normal damages in each case where the accident can clearly be attributed to the failure of the switch, and be done with it.
One of the worst aspects of our worthless Congress is seeing how these assholes - most of whom have never had a real job in their lives - posture for the cameras when they get their tiny little brains around something like this, where they can point to a few unfortunates and pretend to be defending Americans from evil corporations.
It makes me want to vomit.
For all practical purposes, it is NOT A DEFECT! It's a component that could be better and in fact GM made it better after the number of incidents was large enough to show up on its radar screen. But the product was good enough in the first place.
In fact, if our product liability legal environment were not such a cluster-fuck-windfall for plaintiffs and plaintiff lawyers, GM could make a very credible argument that the part is NOT DEFECTIVE, given the statistically insignificant number of failures, and the unusual circumstances that VERY OCCASIONALLY cause it to fail. Thus, they would have to pay normal damages in each case where the accident can clearly be attributed to the failure of the switch, and be done with it.
One of the worst aspects of our worthless Congress is seeing how these assholes - most of whom have never had a real job in their lives - posture for the cameras when they get their tiny little brains around something like this, where they can point to a few unfortunates and pretend to be defending Americans from evil corporations.
It makes me want to vomit.
