Ignition switch recall may help South Carolina motorists

Several drivers who were taken into custody after serious car accidents are having their cases reviewed after a 2014 GM recall. The recall of 2.6 million vehicles for faulty ignition switches may show that the defects may be to blame for malfunctions that led to those crashes. One man who was driving a Chevy Cobalt in a May 2006 accident spent six months in jail on negligent homicide charges.

His car went off the road and flipped over, which resulted in an 18-year-old passenger dying when the airbags didn’t deploy. He has since received a settlement from GM and has asked for its assistance in overturning his conviction. Although many of the convictions occurred before the announcement, one man was taken into custody after the recall was made public, fueling concerns that prosecutors weren’t doing all they could to get to the truth in such cases.

The 19-year-old was driving to Bible study in 2011 when his mother’s Saturn went off the road, came back onto the highway and collided with a pickup truck, killing the truck’s driver. Despite no memory of the event due to a head injury, he was charged with manslaughter in 2014. However, the man’s family spent $70,000 on a private investigator who found a link between the crash and the defective switch, and the charge was later dropped.

Those who have been hurt in car accidents involving defective vehicles may wish to talk to an attorney. The drivers of those vehicles as well as passengers, pedestrians and the drivers of other vehicles injured in the crash may also have a claim against the manufacturer. Compensation may be awarded to pay for medical bills, long-term care costs and lost wages if the injuries keep victims out of work temporarily or permanently.