General Motors has confirmed that a car accident involving a Texas woman is linked to the company's faulty ignition switch issue.
Candice Anderson pleaded guilty to criminally-negligent homicide in 2004 after she lost control of her Saturn Ion and hit a tree, killing her fiancé Gene Erickson.
An email sent by a GM lawyer on Sunday confirmed that Anderson's accident was counted by the company as an ignition switch accident, according to Dow Jones.
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2.5 million vehicles were recalled by GM earlier this year due to this defect. The company determined that the ignition switch could be jostled from "run" to "accessory" while in motion thereby cutting power from the electric steering and air bags.
"Candice Anderson has lived with this wrongful conviction for too long," Anderson's attorney, Mr. Hilliard, said. "GM allowed the victim to be convicted. Now, on the day of the hearing to prove it was GM and not Candice, GM admits what it has known since 2004."
There have been a total of 2,180 claims filed concerning the faulty ignition switches; however, the compensation fund only includes 35 people in its official death toll. As of Friday, 225 death claims had been filed. 51 were cited as having no supporting documentation, 33 were declared ineligible, 77 were deficient and 29 remain under review.
Compensation expert Ken Feinberg recently extended the claim filing period until January 31, 2015.
For the full article can be found at The Wall Street Journal.