GM Settles Pickup Lawsuits

GM Settles Pickup Lawsuits PICKUPS Miscellaneous 27-4-5 General Motors has paid at least $495 million to settle nearly 300 lawsuits filed by families of victims who were killed in crashes involving the company's line of C/K pickups, the Associated Press recently reported. News of the payouts leaked out when a federal judge in Missoula, Mont., released an exhibit in a case brought by the estate of a family killed in a pickup accident. The suits involve C/K trucks with fuel tanks mounted outside the vehicles' protective frames. GM produced more than 9 million of the pickups from 1973 to 1987. They later changed the design. GM opposed the judge's release of the settlement information. A company spokesman said the number and size of settlements did not mean the C/K pickups were unsafe. However, the documents released said 297 settlements of lawsuits involving the pickup resulted in payouts of an average of $1.6 million per individual. Federal regulators dropped an investigation into the line of trucks in 1994 in exchange for a $51 million payment from GM that was earmarked for safety programs.

To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.