Woman convicted of manslaughter learns GM ignition was to blame

tay

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May 20, 2012
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This woman was convicted of criminal negligent homicide. Isn't that exactly what the GM executives did..........?




A Texas woman who became a convicted felon for causing a 2004 car crash that killed her fiancé has learned that GM counts the accident as one of 13 deaths it blames on its defective ignition switches.


Candice Anderson was driving her 2004 Saturn Ion in Canton, Texas, with her fiancé Mikale Erickson in November 2004 when she lost control of the vehicle and crashed. Mr. Erickson, the father of two small children, was killed. Ms. Anderson was thrown through the windshield and barely survived the crash herself. The vehicle’s airbags never deployed.


Police could find no causes for the crash – no skid marks or other evidence that would indicate why the crash occurred. Tests showed that Ms. Anderson was drug- and alcohol-free at the time of the crash. Tests showed that she had only a trace amount of anti-anxiety medication in her system at the time.


Still, authorities charged Ms. Anderson with manslaughter while she was recovering from severe injuries and mourning the loss of her fiancé. She pleaded guilty to criminal negligent homicide and received five years of probation. Her life has never been the same.


“…It’s been a question if I was at fault for his death, and I’ve carried it for so long,” Ms. Anderson told CBS News. She said that “every part of (her) life’s been affected from it,” because she has lived with the stigma of being a convicted felon in a small town for nearly a decade.


In May, Mr. Erickson’s mother, Rhonda Erickson, learned that her son’s death was one of the 13 GM had blamed on its faulty ignition switches, which could cause a sudden loss of power and subsequent loss of control. The defect potentially allows keys to jostle inside the switch, cutting power to the engine and resulting in a loss of power steering and anti-lock brakes. The power loss also deactivates the airbags.


In a letter to Ms. Erickson, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration confirmed that her son’s death was one of the 13 GM attributed to the defective ignition switch. She told CBS News that GM has not apologized to her for the loss of her son.


“I think they owe me an apology,” she told CBS News. “They can’t give me my son back, but they could at least give me an apology.”


Ms. Anderson hopes that GM’s admission and the results of an investigation that found GM waited more than 10 years to recall vehicles with the faulty ignition switches will clear her record.






Texas Woman Blamed For Fiance’s Death Learns GM Defect Caused Crash « CBS Houston
 
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tay

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Woman Cleared in Death Tied to G.M.’s Faulty Ignition Switch




Candice Anderson received the bittersweet news Monday in a Texas courtroom, fighting back tears, and her arm around the mother of the boyfriend she had felt responsible for killing in a car crash 10 years ago.


The judge cleared Ms. Anderson in the death of the boyfriend, Gene Mikale Erickson, even though she had pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide in the case years ago.


Ms. Anderson, 21 at the time of the crash, was driving her car when she inexplicably lost control and crashed into a tree. Mr. Erickson, her passenger, died at the scene, and Ms. Anderson has been racked with guilt ever since.


In getting her record cleared, Ms. Anderson benefited from an extraordinary — and long delayed — admission by General Motors, which on Monday for the first time publicly linked Mr. Erickson’s death to an ignition switch defect in millions of its small cars.




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Sal

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Sep 29, 2007
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GM is definitely criminally negligent

I watched a report on this last month and the fact that they knew there were problems with various models of their car and put profit over human life is an acceptable approach in business now in our society

it's mind bending that we accept this, but we do

it doesn't affect enough people for others to care about, so we don't
 

IdRatherBeSkiing

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May 28, 2007
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This is an ideal case to be settled in the civil courts. By listing his death, GM has already admitted responsibility for the death and is liable.
 

shadowshiv

Dark Overlord
May 29, 2007
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Glad to see that neither myself or my family ended up being on that list of 13. My former car (which I traded in a couple of months ago) and my dad's car were both issued the recall. A 2000 Alero (my car) and a Grand Prix (not sure which year) (my dad's).


Bankruptcy or not, she should be entitled to a settlement. Otherwise, what is to stop GM from doing this again, or other companies following suit by remaining silent. I mean, TEN YEARS after the fact? That is pathetic.