Senators yesterday accused General Motors of having a "culture of cover-up" that led to the deaths of 13 people, The Hill reported today. Often taking a prosecutorial tone with GM CEO Mary Barra, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), chairwoman of the Senate subpanel looking into the recall of more than 1 million GM vehicles due to a dangerous ignition switch flaw, said that the automaker had a "culture of cover-up that allowed an engineer to lie under oath repeatedly." Barra, who was facing senators one day after being grilled by lawmakers in the House, delivered largely the same responses as she did in a high-profile hearing in the lower chamber on Tuesday. But members on the Senate's Commerce, Science and Transportation subcommittee on consumer protection and product safety appeared to be even less accepting of the GM chief's attempts to separate herself from decisions that were made before she assumed the helm of the company this year. "You're new at your job, but you've been GM for how many years?" Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) asked Barra, a second-generation General Motors employee who recently became the first woman to be placed in charge of a major U.S. automaker. She has worked for the company for 33 years. "Something is very strange that such a top employee would know nothing," Boxer said. At issue is GM's recall of more than 1.6 million vehicles that were found to have a defective ignition switches that caused the cars to shut off abruptly or have their airbags disabled. The Senate hearing Wednesday was attended by families of the 13 car crash victims who died in accidents that have been linked to the faulty GM parts.
http://thehill.com/blogs/transportation-report/automobiles/202423-senat…
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