A transportation safety expert witness testified in the case against General Motors brought by the parents of Brooke Melton. The expert reported that information recorded in the black box in the fatal accident showed the key had slipped from the “on” to the “accessory” position three seconds before the accident, shutting off her power steering and power brakes.
On April 1, 2014, General Motors’ CEO Mary Barra will testify before a congressional subcommittee about the widening safety recall on GM pre-2008 ignition switches. Ignition switches moving from the “run” position to the “accessory” or “off” position during a crash may disable the air bag sensing system. The recall follows 12 deaths and 31 crashes in 2005-07 Chevrolet Cobalts, 2003-07 Saturn Ions and several other pre-2008 models with the same ignition switch. As a precaution, NHTSA urges owners of recalled GM vehicles – 2005-07 Chevrolet Cobalt, 2007 Pontiac G5, 2003-07 Saturn Ion, 2006-07 Chevrolet HHR, 2006-07 Pontiac Solstice, 2007 Saturn Sky – to follow GM recommendation to “use only the ignition key with nothing else on the key ring” and get repairs as soon as parts are available from GM.
Here is the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation TQ 14-001: