Did GM know of defect years earlier?
There are now criminal and congressional investigations into a General Motors recall. CNN's Christine Romans reports.
New stunning developmengts in that massive GM recall. A document filed with the Federal Safety regulators shows GM received reports of an ignition defect way back in 2001, three years earlier than the call maker said. Now that defect has been linked to twelve deaths and at least 31 crashes over the past decade. What did these all mean? Let's bring in chief Business correspondant Christine Romance. Christine?
It means big questions for GM. What we know this morning is that in 2001 General Motors disovered an issue, an issue with the sudden iron ignition switch during preproduction development. And the Federal filing says in 2001 internal GM report states an igniton switch design change was made to solve that problem. Now the issue behind the recall of 1.4 million cars in North America has led to some 13 deaths involves ignition switches that can be bumped out of the run position into the off or accessory position,back in course power ,braking, steering and air bags to stop working. GM now says it is conducting a more in-depth analysis of the information relating to the vehicles. There are now criminal and a congressional investigation into this recall.