General Motors' Ignition Switch Death Claims Rise to 19

General Motors Co. (GM) has increased the number of deaths associated with the late faulty ignition switch recall to 19 with apprehensions of a further hike. Kenneth Feinberg, who was hired by the company to assess death claims and deploy funds, has determined that 19 out of the 125 death claims received by the company are eligible for compensation while the rest either require further documentation proof or are still under review. Meanwhile, a few lawmakers project around a 100 deaths associated with this problem.

Feinberg is dealing with the claims registered against General Motors between Aug 1 and Dec 31 this year. Further, he is expected to draw up an updated report on the death claims every Monday Feinberg is well-known for managing compensation funds for the victims of 9/11, Boston Marathon bombing and BP oil spill..

Feinberg has also received 320 injury claims out of which 12 cases have been deemed eligible for compensation. Many of the victims have lost their limbs, or have faced amputation, permanent brain damage and even pervasive burns. Meanwhile, around 262 claims were of a less-serious nature which required hospital or outpatient medical treatment within 48 hours of the crash.

For quite some time, General Motors had been facing the brunt of the delayed defective ignition switch recall which involves about 2.6 million vehicles. The recalled vehicles mainly include Chevrolet Cobalts and Saturn Ions. The company issued a recall for these vehicles in February this year, although the problem was identified way back in 2001.

General Motors anticipates incurring an $0.4 billion for the ignition switch compensation program. However, the expenses can scale to even $0.6 billion.

In a related development, the house committee investigating the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has stated that federal regulators could have detect the ignition switch defect from 2007 onwards, but they discounted information that did not match with their assumptions. This led to the fatal crashes.

General Motors currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Better-ranked automobile stocks worth considering include Tesla Motors, Inc. (TSLA), Visteon Corporation (VC) and Fox Factory Holding Corp (FOXF). While Tesla and Visteon Corporation sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Fox Factory carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

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