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Didn't they take some of that responsibility when they decided to create a car that is by law forced to have an airbag as security device? They may not be the cause of death, but they have their share in it.
Munchies_Matt wrote: So, is someone responsible for not preventing?
Actually, kinda, yes. There is a law for everyone to provide assistance to a person in peril ("duty to rescue", "failure to provide assistance", etc. [^]). You can get punished if you just walk away. That may not be the case in the US (I didn't check  ) but it is in many european countries. If you don't provide help and that person dies, you are still responsible for not having tried to prevent the death (You may not be accused of murder etc. but still you have that responsibility). For me a car componay that refuses to replace non-functioning airbags because "it would cost them more" or "because they didn't got time for that" or whatever other reason, sounds like a person walking away from a person that is seriously wounded.
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Nicholas Marty wrote: That may not be the case in the US
Nor the UK. If some twat wants to jump of a bridge we start taking bets about how big a mess he will make. But we are cynical, hard bastards in the UK. 
(When David Blane did his 'how long can I live in a Perspex box suspended 20 ft off the ground without food or water' in London a few years back, people turned up with camping stoves and started cooking bacon right underneath him.
Some others turned up with golf clubs and hit balls at his box.
Got to love the British sense of taking the piss....
"The whole idea that carbon dioxide is the main cause of the recent global warming is based on a guess that was proved false by empirical evidence during the 1990s." climate-models-go-cold
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the issue is far greater than just air bags.
they installed an ignition switch that was known to be prone to switching the car off, while the car was in motion. in this state all power systems (power steering, brakes, air bags, etc) would shut off, leaving the user struggling to control the vehicle.
the deaths in question happened because cars that were already out of control because of this problem ended up colliding with something, and then the airbags also failed to go off.
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The laws surrounding air bags are obviously retarded[^] (outdated source, it'll be worse now).
But GM is a company, don't feel sorry for it, it can't even feel sorry for itself.
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They're guilty of not fixing a known issue with a required component intended to reduce the number of fatalities from accidents. At the very least they're down for knowing shoddy compliance with airbag laws. I'd be really surprised if they were actually found guilty of the deaths, and far more likely those deaths will be used as justification for inflating the penalties assessed for failure to comply with the law as it's unknowable how many are their fault.
Still, if you make something and your safety features don't work you're going to get a civil suit even if you didn't know about it. If you know about it you deserve every last bit of it.
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Quite, yet to hear the way the media is going on about it...
"The whole idea that carbon dioxide is the main cause of the recent global warming is based on a guess that was proved false by empirical evidence during the 1990s." climate-models-go-cold
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Oh, well, that's the media. Not much to do about that other than laugh and see if they have a tech article that's more inaccurate than their legal ones.
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The actual condition was that the switch could easily be turned off (bad detent - too easy to turn it off). This happened if you had a heavy load of junk hanging off of the key chain, and hit a bump in the road, or bumped it with your knee. This turned off the ignition, which also turned off the air bags. The loss of the engine power caused the loss of the power steering and the driver lost control of the car (my guess he was trying to determine what had happened and was not looking at the road). When the car ran off of the road and crashed into a tree, the airbags did not deploy.
I read some reports that some people did recover by turning the key on again which re-enabled the air bags, some actually re-started the engine and totally recovered, others crashed but were saved by the re-enabled airbags.
Dave.
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Ahhh, I see. Well that makes it even less GMs fault. Clearly the ignition switch turning force is not mandated by law and thus any misuse (by hanging iPods etc off it) is the responsibility of the user.
What is the expected, usual, reasonable, amount of stuff to have on a key chain? Clearly, this 300 exceeded that so it is their fault. The switch is NOT designed for this, and so GM are guilt free.
"The whole idea that carbon dioxide is the main cause of the recent global warming is based on a guess that was proved false by empirical evidence during the 1990s." climate-models-go-cold
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Munchies_Matt wrote: Well that makes it even less GMs fault.
the ignition switch was unable to stand up to normal use, and GM knew it; this is most certainly GM's fault.
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If it wasn't able to stand up to normal use then far more of the 80000 sold would be affected, since normal, by definition, will be the average.
I see this as people in the US thinking they can hang an iPod off their key and not think it might cause it to turn.
"The whole idea that carbon dioxide is the main cause of the recent global warming is based on a guess that was proved false by empirical evidence during the 1990s." climate-models-go-cold
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the fact that other cars do not suffer from the same problem is the evidence that these cars have defective parts.
or, maybe there's something special about the people who bought this particular model of car that makes them more likely to do one of the following:
A) to have exceptionally heavy keychains
B) to nudge the ignition with their knees in ways no other driers do
C) to drive over exactly the right kind of bumps that would disable a car's ignition
for some unknown sociological reason, people who exhibit one or more of those conditions chose to buy this particular car over all others.
if you can prove that's what happening, GM would probably love to know about it. because they seem to think they knowingly put out a car with a defective part.
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Whats the car affected?
Could be its an SUV, and has more space to hang junk off the key, in a saloon its gong to bash your knee all the time.
Whats clear is that its not as black and white as the media, and radio, is putting out. Perhaps GM should have put out an ad to say ' don't hang junk off your key, it can turn the ignition off while driving'.
Of course perhaps that's obvious....
"The whole idea that carbon dioxide is the main cause of the recent global warming is based on a guess that was proved false by empirical evidence during the 1990s." climate-models-go-cold
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Chevrolet: Cobalt 2005-2010, HHR 2006-2011
Pontiac: G5 2005-2010, Solstice 2006-2010
Saturn: Ion 2003-2007, Sky 2007-2010
Munchies_Matt wrote: Perhaps GM should have put out an ad to say ' don't hang junk off your key, it can turn the ignition off while driving'.
perhaps they should just spend the $.75 and fix the friggin problem.
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Or change the key so the hole is on the pother side?
"The whole idea that carbon dioxide is the main cause of the recent global warming is based on a guess that was proved false by empirical evidence during the 1990s." climate-models-go-cold
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Just to add, I disagree with airbags and seatbelts - they should be banned for drivers, and replaced with a six-inch long razor sharp knife in the middle of the steering wheel together with a sign that says "in the event of an accident, you will die".
You will lose a lot of morons in the first few months, but the roads would be a lot, lot safer after that! 
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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That is, sadly, the case. People are idiots.
"The whole idea that carbon dioxide is the main cause of the recent global warming is based on a guess that was proved false by empirical evidence during the 1990s." climate-models-go-cold
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Only in the case that the idiot driver is causing the accident himself. But way too often they kill someone who did nothing wrong 
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Yes, you'd lose some innocents in the early days. But...you'd also lose all the idiots of that generation, and the following generation would know beyond a shadow of a doubt that a car is a lethal weapon. And the standard of driving would improve.
True story: in introduction of seat belt laws in the UK caused more deaths than it saved - because people felt safer and the accidents were bigger, so when people died it was at the scene rather than in a hospital. And so their organs were useless for transplants...it's called "risk compensation" theory. Have a google: there is a large body of evidence that seatbelts don't even save many lives of drivers per year!
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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About that story: I hear in russia you're statistically more likely to survive an accident if you don't wear a seatbelt, albeit you have to by law. Most often they just pretend to wear them (not putting them in), so they are "safer" . But that's a story I read in the newspaper some time back around the events unfolding at Sochi.
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There is also an argument that seat belts have resulted in greater numbers of people surviving with injuries (some form of paralysis, brain injury, etc), that would otherwise have croaked at the scene, costing us all far more in the long... run.
If your neighbours don't listen to The Ramones, turn it up real loud so they can.
“We didn't have a positive song until we wrote 'Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue!'” ― Dee Dee Ramone
"The Democrats want my guns and the Republicans want my porno mags and I ain't giving up either" - Joey Ramone
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From NBCNews[^]
The recall was first announced in mid-February when GM said the ignition switches on nearly 800,000 vehicles could inadvertently turn off while being driven, stalling the engine and disabling power steering and brakes, and disabling the vehicle airbag system.
I heard the switch costs 59 cents and the problem could definitely cause an accident.
!bVagadishnu
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Apparently only if excessive stuff is hung off the key. Is that normal use?
"The whole idea that carbon dioxide is the main cause of the recent global warming is based on a guess that was proved false by empirical evidence during the 1990s." climate-models-go-cold
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Munchies_Matt wrote: excessive stuff
Depends on what you call excessive.
I have a Swiss army knife like this one clickety[^] on my key ring and it caused me no problems turning the car off.
I drive a Toyota.
You can go sleep at home tonight if you can get up and walk away
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Ferd Really wrote: Depends on what you call excessive.
80000 of these switches out there, 300 dead.
I would say that the average person clearly didn't hang too much, so clearly the 300 that died did.
"The whole idea that carbon dioxide is the main cause of the recent global warming is based on a guess that was proved false by empirical evidence during the 1990s." climate-models-go-cold
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