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 In his most pointed comments to date about GM's lapses, David
Friedman, deputy administrator of the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration, said the automaker put its own reputation
ahead of the safety of its customers.
"GM very clearly made some incredibly poor decisions when it came to
their culture," Friedman said in an interview Monday. "They were
more worried about us (NHTSA) getting information about problems
than they were about actually fixing problems."
Earlier on Monday, the chief of GM's victim settlement fund raised
the number of deaths from accidents caused by the automaker's
defective ignition switches to 19, up from 13.
Friedman's comments come ahead of his appearance on Tuesday before a
Senate panel in which he will likely be grilled about his own
agency's failure to connect the dots on years of consumer complaints
and accident data about GM cars with a deadly ignition switch flaw.
GM earlier this year recalled 2.6 million vehicles because of the
risk the switches could unexpectedly turn off engines during
operation and disable airbags.
Tuesday's hearing, chaired by Senator Claire McCaskill, is focusing
on whether NHTSA is effectively implementing and enforcing highway
and vehicle safety laws, and whether Congress should make additional
reforms in the wake of GM recalls, said a staffer for the consumer
protection subcommittee.
McCaskill has introduced legislation to increase NHTSA’s authority
to fine carmakers for safety violations.
Friedman said in the interview that his agency had started a program
of "unprecedented oversight" with GM and other automakers.
"We're setting a system up where the minute they sneeze about a
safety issue, we're able to be aware of it and make sure we
understand how they're dealing with it," he said.
In recent months, Friedman said he has invited senior executives
from 12 global automakers to talk about how to establish a "new
normal" when it comes to recalls.
During those discussions, Friedman said he is "making clear that we
have zero tolerance when it comes to automakers failing to act
quickly and aggressively" on reporting and recalling defective cars.
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As part of a settlement in May with NHTSA, GM agreed to pay a $35
million fine for its delayed response to the ignition switch
problems. GM also was required to hold regular meetings with NHTSA
to report on efforts to catch safety problems and it also must give
the agency monthly reports on any emerging defect issues.
Friedman said GM had "a fundamentally flawed system and culture that
was focused more on profits than on safety," but acknowledged the
automaker has been overhauling its defect and recall reporting
system under Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra.
He said the agency has been pressure-testing GM's revised system to
make sure their new approach is rock solid.
"We ran them through their paces, ran them through a variety of
scenarios," said Friedman. "We are trying to make sure that General
Motors fundamentally changes both their practice and their culture"
on finding and fixing defects.
GM did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
Friedman said he was "not shocked" by attorney Kenneth Feinberg's
initial report Monday that he has approved 19 of 125 death claims
made to a GM fund established to compensate families of victims who
died in switch-related crashes.
(Reporting by Marilyn Thompson in Washington and Paul Lienert in
Detroit; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
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