GM Fuel Tank Fires

GM sidesaddle fuel tanks in 4.7 million 1973 through 1987 full-size pickup trucks were under scrutiny by federal safety regulators, consumer advocates, and the media several years ago. At the same time, responding to horrible burn death and injury cases, plaintiffs attorneys turned their attention to GM's policies that allowed the dangerous positioning of fuel tanks in a number of its vehicles, not just pickup trucks.

After testimony and documents showing GM knew that placing the fuel tanks outside of the frame rails of its pickup trucks was less safe than placing them inside of the frame, juries have awarded substantial sums to plaintiffs. Despite a NHTSA request to recall GM trucks with fuel tanks outside the frame rails, which the agency found were 2.4 times more likely to catch fire in side-impact crashes than Ford trucks, it closed its investigation after reaching a settlement in which GM agreed to fund safety research in lieu of a recall remedy. A recall to place a safety cage around existing tanks was estimated at $65 per vehicle.

More recently, the focus of attention has been on GM fuel system fires in rear impact collisions after a Los Angeles jury awarded $4.9 billion to plaintiffs who suffered severe burns when their Chevrolet Malibu exploded in a crash. The plaintiffs argued that the fuel tank in the 1979 Malibu and similar vehicles was too close to the rear bumper and could have been placed in a safer position over the axle or could have been protected by a shield at minimal cost.

Much of the attention in this and other recent GM fuel system cases is centered on the controversial "Ivey Memo." The memo authored by GM engineer Edward Ivey in 1973 calculated that post collision fuel-fed fires caused up to 500 deaths per year and based on calculations that each human life was worth $200,000, the cost to GM was $2.40 per vehicle. Ivey, who was working for Oldsmobile, GM's lead division on fuel tank design, testified that he didn't recall why he prepared the memo. However, notes related to the memo taken after a 1981 interview indicated that Ivey characterized the memo as an analysis designed to help determine how much Oldsmobile could spend on fuel systems. Ivey's memo was written at the time GM was planning the design of a new A-Body vehicle, and one of the key issues facing Ivey's superiors was whether to place the fuel tank under the trunk or over the axle. In these notes a lawyer for GM stated:

Obviously Ivey is not an individual who we would ever, in any conceivable situation, want identified to the plaintiffs in a post-collision fuel-fed fire case, and the documents he generated are undoubtedly the most harmful and most damaging were they ever to be produced. The Los Angeles Superior Court judge wrote in his decision upholding the verdict that "the court finds clear and convincing evidence demonstrated that defendants' fuel tank was placed behind the axle on automobiles of the make and model here in order to maximize profits - to the disregard of public safety."