General Motors Co. said that the engineer responsible for flawed ignitions linked to 13 deaths also oversaw switches in more than 3 million cars recalled yesterday, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The recall covers seven different models and involved ignitions slipping out of the “run” position, like the action that covered 2.59 million small cars earlier this year. While the newly recalled vehicles have a different switch, they shared the same design release engineer. Ray DeGiorgio was named in an internal report released this month as being responsible for the faulty ignition switch in Chevrolet Cobalts and Saturn Ions recalled in February. He and 14 other people were ousted by Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra for their roles in the company’s mishandling and years-long delay in recalling the fatally flawed vehicles. GM yesterday called back 3.36 million more vehicles, including some Chevrolet Impalas and Cadillac Devilles, just two days before Barra returns to Congress to answer questions about why the company waited years to fix the Cobalt and Ion. GM said that its second-quarter charges to cover its safety actions would reach $700 million.
