GM has suspended two engineers in the midst of the investigation over the ignition switch recall that affected over 2.6 million cars and resulted in 13 deaths. Ray DeGiorgio and Gary Altman have both been put on paid leave by the company after they came to the forefront of the investigation last week when GM CEO Mary Barra testified before Congress.
DeGiorgio came under scrutiny for approving a design change back in 2006 that improved a spring in the faulty ignition switch, making it more robust. He authorized the change without fully documenting the decision. He was lead design engineer on Cobalt ignition switches at the time.
Then, in a deposition during a 2013 wrongful-death suit against GM in Georgia, DeGiorgio testified that he hadn’t been aware that GM had made any change to the part. The documentation of the changes he authorized call into question his honesty during the deposition.
Altman was engineering manager of the Cobalt program and was responsible for responding to reports of the car stalling. He reportedly drove the car in 2004, bumped the ignition switch with his knee, and accidentally turned off the engine.
Several possible solutions were posed by engineers, but Altman declined to pursue the matter. He determined that none of the proposed solutions were “an acceptable business case” according to a lawsuit filed in California last month.
Neither Altman nor DeGiorgio have made any comment since their suspensions.
Check out this video of the 2009 Chevy Cobalt SS…
Nicole Wakelin fell in love with cars as a teenager when she got to go for a ride in a Ferrari. It was red and it was fast and that was all that mattered. Game over. She considers things a bit more carefully now, but still has a weakness for fast, beautiful cars. Nicole also writes for NerdApproved and GeekMom.
