General Motors was hit Tuesday with a lawsuit brought on behalf of more than 650 people allegedly injured or killed in accidents involving cars that have been recalled this year for faulty ignition switches. The lawsuit was filed in Manhattan federal court, where dozens of cases against GM over the switch recall have been consolidated. It names 658 plaintiffs, including 29 who are bringing claims on behalf of people who died. GM has recalled nearly 15 million vehicles worldwide this year over potentially defective ignition switches. The company has set up a program to compensate victims of crashes involving about 2.6 million of those cars, mostly Cobalts, Ions and other small cars that it linked to 54 crashes and 13 deaths. Tuesday’s lawsuit covers claims that would not be eligible for the program, according to Robert Hilliard, the lawyer who filed the suit. These include accidents involving cars not among the 2.6 million initially recalled for switch issues and accidents in which the car’s airbags deployed, which are ineligible for the program. A spokesman for GM declined to comment on the allegations in the suit.
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-Reuters
