We’ve seen it time and time again: Corporations, given the chance, will put their bottom line above their customers’ safety. General Motors only belabored the point, then, when in April the automaker issued a type of recall that safety advocates allege is a tactic for corporations to avoid the cost of a comprehensive recall.
GM recalled about 50,000 Buick Enclave, Chevrolet Traverse and GMC Acadia crossovers from the 2011-2012 model years because their windshield wipers could fail in snowy or icy conditions. If snow or ice accumulated on the windshield, the company said in a report filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a nut in the wiper apparatus could loosen and the wiper might stop working.
Here’s the catch: In what’s called a “regional recall,” GM said it would repair only cars in states it had determined have “moderate to heavy annual snowfall.” The New York Times reported that the automaker has sold approximately 295,000 Enclaves, Traverses and Acadias from the 2011-2012 model years, meaning the defective wipers will go unfixed on the roughly 245,000 cars presumably in states the automaker has deemed have less than moderate yearly snowfall.
Have you or a loved one been harmed by a defective vehicle? What if you knew that was the result of corporate corner-cutting? Contact the personal injury attorneys at Hodes Milman toll-free at (949) 640-8222, or submit the contact form on our website, verdictvictory.com. We’ve achieved million-dollar verdicts in product-liability actions on behalf of our clients.