General Motors lawsuit filed in Scott County

A March 2012 crash on Interstate 55 in Scott County soon could be among several reaching the national spotlight.

Kelly Irvin, 26, of Cape Girardeau was traveling in her 2006 Chevrolet Cobalt on March 27, 2012, when the engine shut off and the car began skidding sideways, crossing the center of the road and coming to a rest on the east side of the interstate, according to court documents filed in her lawsuit against General Motors.

Before the crash, Irvin was a registered nurse working in labor and delivery at a Cape Girardeau hospital. Now, her lawyer, Maurice Graham, argues that because of memory loss and attention issues caused by the accident, Irvin is no longer able to hold a job as a nurse and now answers phone calls at the same hospital. Graham and Irvin declined to comment on the case.

Irvin was seriously and permanently injured as a result of the accident, according to court documents. She sustained severe brain trauma, a left intracranial brain hemorrhage, pelvic fractures, non-displaced lumbar fracture, clavicle fracture, neck injuries, orbital injuries and severe internal injuries.

In recent months, General Motors has been under national scrutiny about defective ignition switches installed in approximately 2.6 million vehicles globally and 2.2 million in the United States. The defects encompass eight models sold by the company from 2003 to 2010, according to various recall reports released by GM.

Models include Chevrolet Cobalts, Saturn Ions and other small cars. The defective switch can cause the engine to shut off, disabling the power-assisted steering, breaks and air bags.

The company's website is telling customers of affected vehicles it is "very important" to remove all items from their key rings, leaving only the vehicle key, and even removing the key fob, until the recall repairs have been performed.

In May, GM agreed to pay a $35 million civil penalty and comply with other requirements issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Those requirements included providing NHTSA with full access to the results of the company's internal investigation, taking steps to ensure its employees report safety-related concerns to management and speeding up the process for GM to decide whether to recall vehicles, according to a news release from the office of U.S. Sen Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri.

The NHTSA also issued GM a fine of $7,000 per day beginning April 4 and ending June 5, when the company answered all 107 questions about the faulty ignition switches requested by the NHTSA within its internal investigation report.

GM released the report early this month, documenting how it failed to respond to an ignition-switch defect that engineers identified more than a decade ago. Mary Barra, CEO of GM, said she fired 15 employees "who we determined to have acted inappropriately" and also disciplined five employees for their failure to act in the recall crisis, according to a news release from the company.

Two of those employees are Gary Altman and Ray DeGiorgio. When questioned by McCaskill, Barra said DeGiorgio may have lied under oath about ordering replacement switches in 2006, the release from McCaskill's office said.

At least 303 deaths have been caused by disabled air bags from the ignition defect, but GM only links 54 crashes and 13 deaths to the defect, according to the Center for Auto Safety.

More than 80 ignition-switch-related civil lawsuits have been filed against GM, most seeking economic damages, such as repair costs and declines in resale value, according to the Wall Street Journal.

On Monday, a decision by a seven-judge panel ruled that all lawsuits, except those over personal injuries or deaths allegedly caused by the ignition default, will be sent to U.S. District Judge Jesse M. Furman in Manhattan, who will handle all pretrial rulings related to the cases, the Journal reported.

A compensation fund will be launched in August for death and physical injury claims as a result of the defect, according to the company.

Irvin and her attorney have filed a lawsuit against GM with the Scott County courts for punitive damages, alleging "failure to notify Kelly [Irvin] of the defective and dangerous condition of the 2006 Cobalt she owned and was driving at the time of her accident represents a conscious disregard for her safety," according to court documents.

The documents state Irvin has incurred medical, surgical, hospital and therapy bills exceeding $400,000 and will continue to incur medical expenses. Irvin's lawyer also claims that her income for the remainder of her life will be reduced by nearly 40 percent because of her injuries.

The lawsuit claims six counts of action against GM including negligence, failure to warn, strict liability, negligently supplying a dangerous instrument of fatality and violation of the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act by unfair and unlawful practices.

Numbers released last week by The Associated Press provide additional information regarding ignition switch problems with GM this year:

• 3.4 million older model large cars were recalled June 16. The force of a large bump and a swinging key chain can combine to move the switches out of the "run" position and cause engine stalling. Evidence at hearings last week showed that GM engineers knew about the problem for at least nine years.
• 512,000 newer Chevy Camaros were recalled earlier in June for stalling problems. They happened because of keys coming in contact with drivers' knees in rare cases.
• GM has issued 44 recalls so far in 2014.
• GM has recalled a total of 20 million cars and trucks this year in North America.
• GM estimates a cost of $2 billion for recall-related costs through the first half of the year.
• The cost of each replacement switch for the 2.6 million small cars recalled is 57 cents.
• GM's net income last year was $3.8 billion.
• 9.7 million cars and trucks were sold by GM globally last year.