GM suspends two engineers in disciplinary action

fla-gypsy wrote:
Integrity is always relevant. Human life was lost and someone is accountable.

This is true.

However, I have various concerns about this case. I am not defending GM's practices. I am not a big GM fan, but I currently own one of the recalled cars, and it has been my daily driver for 5 years (and still is today).

In one of the cases, the person killed was a 16 year old female who was drunk, not wearing a seat belt, and was speeding. Unless I am wrong, it is against the law to drive drunk (and it is against the law for a 16 year old to be drunk), it is against the law to not wear seat belts, and it is against the law to speed. So, in this case, I think it is important to at least consider the possibility that the driver had some fault. Plus, I have studied crash tests enough to know that when you are not wearing seat belts, the air bags will not automatically save your life. Air bags are an important part of the process, but they are not the only part.

I also recall reading in the past about how you need to disconnect the battery before working around the steering column since the airbags can be active for a certain amount of time (maybe 5 minutes??) after shutting off the engine. I wish I could find the reference to that. I always thought that was basic common sense when working on modern cars. Maybe this has changed in recent years.

On edit, www.airbagsolutions.com states the following:

The diagnostic computer, or “airbag control unit”, is constantly monitoring the system as long as the vehicle key is “on”. The system retains power even after the car is turned off by means of a capacitor. The airbag system will remain ‘live’ for approximately 2-10 minute after turning the vehicle off, depending on the manufacturer. This is designed so that if the vehicle loses power during a crash, the protection of the airbag system is still there.

My biggest gripe is that Dan Akerson obviously knew about this and conveniently left just a few days before this all broke loose. Again, I am not a big GM fan and not necessarily a fan of Mary Barra, but I'm just saying that Akerson should be involved in the grilling.