A fund set up by General Motors Co. to compensate victims of crashes linked to defective ignition switches could offer payments for anyone injured or killed in a crash in which the car's air bags didn't deploy, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Compensation expert Kenneth Feinberg, who will administer the fund, is expected to outline details of the victims' fund as early as next week. Families of people killed or injured in one of the 2.6 million recalled cars could opt out of accepting payments from the fund if they want to sue the auto maker. The company has said it is protected from product-liability claims by its 2009 bankruptcy. GM has said it doesn't know how much money it could pay out through the fund Feinberg will oversee. The company has said that it knows of 13 people who died in crashes in which air bags failed to deploy because the car's ignition switch had slipped out of the run position before the collision.
