Portland — Oregon will receive $1.7 million as part of a consumer protection settlement over faulty General Motors ignition switches, installed in various car models between 2004 and 2014, that led to hundreds of deaths and injuries.
Oregon is receiving a small part of the $120 million, multi-state settlement because the number of affected vehicles sold there is small. GM has said there were 64,930 affected vehicles in Oregon, of which 44,836 have been repaired pursuant to a recall, according to the Oregon Department of Justice.
In early 2014, GM issued a recall for some 2.6 million Chevrolet Cobalts, Saturn Ions and other small cars with ignition switches that could turn to the “off” position while the vehicle was underway, disabling a car’s power steering, power brakes, and the sensor that controls airbag deployment.
When accidents took place with the ignition in the “off” position, some vehicles’ airbags failed to deploy. The defect left 124 people dead and another 275 injured. GM failed to issue any recalls until 2014 despite having known about the problem a decade earlier, according to the lawsuit filed by the state in Multnomah County Circuit Court.
The settlement with 49 states and the district of Columbia comes on top of previous penalties and payouts of some $2.5 billion.
