GM recall death toll may top 125 based on victim claims

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http://hamptonroads.com/2014/09/gm-recall-death-toll-may-top-125-based-victim-claims

GM recall death toll may top 125 based on victim claims
By Jeff Plungis and Yang Yang | Bloomberg News

© September 15, 2014

WASHINGTON

At least 125 people may have been killed in crashes related to defective ignition switches in General Motors cars, according to the first batch of claims to a victims' compensation fund.

Kenneth Feinberg, the lawyer hired by GM to determine which requests are valid, said families in 19 of those cases will get a payout, while the remaining cases are still being vetted. If the tally holds up, the number of deaths linked to the defect by Feinberg's fund would be almost 10 times what GM had determined.

"GM was asking its engineers can you definitively say ignition switch defects caused the accident," Feinberg said in a Bloomberg Television interview Monday. "Our standard, as you know, is much more liberal. It's easier to apply. It's a legal standard, was the ignition switch the proximate cause, a substantial likelihood as the cause of the accident."

Feinberg said he expects the fatality tally to increase as more claims come in, though he wouldn't give an estimate as to how high. He also declined to speculate how much GM could pay out. The automaker, the largest in the U.S., said in July it was setting aside $400 million to $600 million to pay victims.