GM Seatbelt Issue

[BillyP]

My wife had an accident where another car pulled out in front of her and they collided. Everyone was OK, so that was great. My wife's seat belt (06 Chevy pickup) didn't catch and she jammed her thumb against the steering wheel. No big deal, had x-rays and everything was fine just some bruising and swelling. Anyway, a friend of mine that is a Service Manager for a Chevy dealership saw the seat belt and suggested I call GM to notify them of some kind of defect. I call and spend 2 hours on the phone with this lady. She said some kind of investigator would contact me within 24 hours. $ days later this guy from GM calls and asked the same question as the lady. He asked me what I wanted. I said nothing, that I figured GM might want to know about the seat belt issue. He asked me if I wanted them to look at it. I said I figured GM would want to. He said only if I wanted them to. I then said yes, come looked at it. He then said I would have to have it towed to a GM dealership (not drivable) and the would have someone come look at it. I told him to forget it. If GM doesn't care any more than that then I don't either.

My question is...

Shouldn't GM have at least came and looked at it on their dollar??

Excuse me if this doesn't make much sense but I'm in a hurry.

 

[gordon21]

Man: What do you want?

You: A quick settlement within 10 days, no herd of lawyers and I can forget the whole thing for $75,000. If you guys take longer than 10 days to settle, then I call the law firm of Schiester, Scheister and Nail-them and we go for the big money.

Do NOT let them take posession of the car. For all you know, they could have a major safety problem and be looking at dozens of lawsuits scattered around the country. If they get the car, your proof is gone.

Seatbelts would fall into that category of exploding gas tanks and airbag problems. I can't remember which auto maker had a recall because their selt beat sensor was way down under the carpet and once it got damp it would not work properly.

 

[RonMar]

They probably know all about the "seat belt" issue. It sounds like you were transfered from an information gatherer to a claims/legal representative. Send them a bill for the X-ray/diagnosis as(thankfully) that is your only claim against them. I bet they would pay it with very few questions asked...

 

[BillyP]

Do NOT let them take posession of the car. For all you know, they could have a major safety problem and be looking at dozens of lawsuits scattered around the country. If they get the car, your proof is gone.

I didn't becaus it was towed to a body shop and I doubt the insurance company would want to pay for the extra tow (I know I wasn't). The service manager told me it took sometimes 2 months for GM to come around. I couldn't do without the truck for that long. I think they were banking on that.

 

[BillyP]

They probably know all about the "seat belt" issue. It sounds like you were transfered from an information gatherer to a claims/legal representative. Send them a bill for the X-ray/diagnosis as(thankfully) that is your only claim against them. I bet they would pay it with very few questions asked...

You are exactly right except them knowing about the seat belt issue. I don't know whether they did or didn't. That was my whole point of contacting them.

As far as the ER visit and x-rays, that's no big deal. His insurance is paying for that. My insurance called and told be to submit a claim on our Medical Payment but I told him it was already taken care of.

All I wanted was for GM to investigate a potential safety hazard. They didn't even give me the satisfaction of that.

If I (and I hope I don't) ever hear of a GM seat belt failure and pending lawsuit my wife and I will be there to testify for the plaintiff.

 

[jdbower]

Chances are if any money is spent investigating this a formal NHTSA report would need to be filed by either you or GM. Obviously this is a horribly expensive thing for a car company to do and I'm guessing the vast majority of reports end up as "works as designed" (for example, if you're in a 5mph crash and the airbag doesn't go off). If you think this is a one-off issue I would probably ignore it. If you think this could be a flaw in the manufacturing or design you can go to the NHTSA directly and have them investigate:
IVOQ - File a Complaint

I'm sure dropping their name to GM may make them pay a little more attention...

 

[1bush2hog]

Chances are if any money is spent investigating this a formal NHTSA report would need to be filed by either you or GM. Obviously this is a horribly expensive thing for a car company to do and I'm guessing the vast majority of reports end up as "works as designed" (for example, if you're in a 5mph crash and the airbag doesn't go off). If you think this is a one-off issue I would probably ignore it. If you think this could be a flaw in the manufacturing or design you can go to the NHTSA directly and have them investigate:
IVOQ - File a Complaint

I'm sure dropping their name to GM may make them pay a little more attention...

I went thru a similar incident when my son t-boned a lady that pulled out in front of him and his airbag did not deply. He was driving a 2003 Jeep Wrangler and hit the lady at an appx. speed of 45-50mph.

I called Chrysler as I would have thought the airbag should have deployed. Chrysler sent an engineer out to survey and evaluate and I received a letter about 3 weeks later stating that everything was working properly as designed.

What a joke! Or maybe I just don't understand how airbags are intended to operate.

Fortunately no one was injured in the accident, and we no longer have a Wrangler.

 

[Timber]

I have to commend you for not looking for a Law suit and a Pay day at the drop of the hat. We live in a strange world where every one thinks they deserve millions of dollars because there coffee was to hot or there cheese burger made them fat. It is fribaless law suites the make the medical profession so scary that nobody wants to be a surgeon and Insurance rates and cost is passed on to every one of us. Things happen and people make mistakes. Mechanical things fail. I would want to know why it didn't work and have it fixed though. I would not want and air bag to deploy with out my seat belt working properly and that repair should be part of the overall repair to the vehicle

 

[BillyP]

Chances are if any money is spent investigating this a formal NHTSA report would need to be filed by either you or GM. Obviously this is a horribly expensive thing for a car company to do and I'm guessing the vast majority of reports end up as "works as designed" (for example, if you're in a 5mph crash and the airbag doesn't go off). If you think this is a one-off issue I would probably ignore it. If you think this could be a flaw in the manufacturing or design you can go to the NHTSA directly and have them investigate:
IVOQ - File a Complaint

I'm sure dropping their name to GM may make them pay a little more attention...

Thanks for the link, Jeff. I just got off the phone with the DOT Vehicle Safety Hotline. We'll where it goes from there.

Thanks again.

 

[BillyP]

I have to commend you for not looking for a Law suit and a Pay day at the drop of the hat. We live in a strange world where every one thinks they deserve millions of dollars because there coffee was to hot or there cheese burger made them fat. It is fribaless law suites the make the medical profession so scary that nobody wants to be a surgeon and Insurance rates and cost is passed on to every one of us. Things happen and people make mistakes. Mechanical things fail. I would want to know why it didn't work and have it fixed though. I would not want and air bag to deploy with out my seat belt working properly and that repair should be part of the overall repair to the vehicle

Timber, the seat belt will be covered under warranty. If someone ever has to do an investigation on GM seat belt failures there will be a record. I'm just glad no one was hurt. That's really all that matters. What really concerns me is if she had been going 50 or 60? As you can probably tell, I'm a firm believer in wearing seat belts.