Judge reverses conviction over faulty GM ignition part
Woman served three months in jail after pleading guilty to manslaughter in crash
PITTSBURGH— A Pennsylvania judge reversed the involuntary manslaughter conviction of a woman Wednesday after determining a faulty General Motors ignition switch contributed to her crashing into a school bus and utility pole, killing her passenger boyfriend.
LaKisha Ward-Green, 25, of Penn Hills, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and reckless driving in 2012. She served three months of a one- to two-year jail sentence before her attorneys appealed, eventually citing the GM defect that resulted in the Wednesday court decision.
Police determined Ward-Green was driving 75 m.p.h. (120 km/h)in a 35 m.p.h. zone when she crashed, killing 16-year-old Robert Chambers IV, who wasn’t wearing a seatbelt.
But Allegheny County Judge Philip Ignelzi overturned the conviction after arguments from Ward-Green’s attorney Bob Hilliard, who relied on expert testimony and GM recall records to bolster his claims.
Last year, GM recalled 2.6 million small cars, including Ward-Green’s 2007 Chevy Cobalt, because the ignition switches could unexpectedly turn off, causing the cars to stall, disabling the airbags and power steering and brakes.
Earlier this week, lawyers hired to oversee a $625-million (U.S.) fund GM set up for victims of the faulty ignition switches approved nearly 400 of the more than 4,300 claims filed. Hilliard told The Associated Press that Ward-Green and Chambers’ family both received an unspecified amount of money from that fund.
The Pennsylvania district attorney’s office could decide to retry Ward-Green, but a spokesman declined to comment on the judge’s decision.
The GM fund doesn’t account for contributory negligence, which is anything the drivers or accident victims might have done to contribute to the crashes in which the ignition switches failed.
But Hilliard said Ward-Green bears “no responsibility for the accident” despite the police finding that she was speeding,
He said the car’s data recorder, or black box, showed she was travelling 75 m.p.h. five seconds before the crash, but only about 35 m.p.h. three seconds later. That’s when she swerved to avoid a vehicle, and is when the ignition switch moved, causing her to lose brakes, power steering and airbags, Hilliard said. He said the airbag alone likely would have saved Chambers’ life.
“I’m aggravated with GM because had they issued the recall when they were supposed to, her criminal defence lawyer would have known about it, and he likely wouldn’t have advised her to plead guilty,” Hilliard said. GM spokesman James Cain declined to comment on the decision.
Meanwhile, several large auto makers were hit with a different ignition issue. Ten of the world’s biggest carmakers were sued over claims that keyless ignitions lacking an automatic shut-off endanger drivers and passengers with deadly carbon monoxide fumes.
Manufacturers including Toyota, Ford and Honda have long known of the risks and failed to fix the defect even as 13 people have died, consumers said in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Los Angeles federal court.
The car buyers in the new keyless litigation seek to sue the companies as a nationwide group for failing to recall the vehicles.
“Drivers have parked their affected vehicles inside their garages and removed the keyless fobs, only to later discover that the engines never actually turned off,” according to the complaint. “As a result, deadly carbon monoxide . . . can fill enclosed spaces and spread to the attached homes.”
Aaron Fowles, a spokesman for Toyota’s U.S. unit, declined to comment on the Los Angeles lawsuit. Whitney Eichinger, a Ford spokeswoman, didn’t immediately return a call after normal business hours seeking comment.