In the United States, between 2003 and 2012, as many as 303 people died in traffic accidents aboard cars manufactured by General Motors in which the airbags did not work. This was revealed by Friedman Research Corporation, a company that analyzes safety data, which however has not tried to understand the reasons for the road accidents taken into consideration.
Incidents involving two models, the Chevrolet Cobalts (2005-07) and Saturn Ions (2003-07), among six that GM was forced to recall last month (totalling 1,6 million cars) due to an ignition fault, which allegedly resulted in 31 accidents and 13 deaths. A defect that would have been discovered more than a decade ago and which the Justice Department and Congress are investigating in the United States.
The study by Friedman Research Corporation was commissioned by the observatory "The Center for Auto Safety", which sent a letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, accusing the American agency for road safety of not having identified this problem and that related to the ignition that led (more than 10 years late) to the recall of 1,6 million cars.
However, General Motors criticized the use of the database, known as the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (Fars): “As expert observers know, Fars collects raw data. Without rigorous analysis, it is pure speculation to try to come to any meaningful conclusions,” said Greg Martin, a spokesman for the auto giant.
