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GM claims faulty cars are to blame for 13 deaths only, but the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says the toll is higher.
Such accidents also occurred at a higher rate in the GM cars than in top competitors' models, Reuters said after searching the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), a national database of crash information submitted by local law-enforcement agencies, for single-car frontal collisions where no front air bags deployed and the driver or
front-seat passenger was killed.
The frequency of such accidents in the Ion was nearly six times that of the Corolla and twice that of the Focus, according to the analysis. The Ion had 5.9 such fatal crashes per 100,000 cars sold, followed by the Cobalt, with 4.1, the Ford Focus with 2.9, the Civic with 1.6, and the Corolla with 1.0.
The report also said that air bags may have failed to deploy in some of the GM crashes for reasons other than faulty switches.
GM has recalled nearly 2.6 million vehicles with defective switches across the globe.
The US giant has been fined $35 million by federal regulators in the past, for delays in recalling cars with faulty ignition switches.
GM has acknowledged that its engineers had known about the problem as early as 2004, but the company did not recall the vehicles until February this year.
GM declined to comment on Reuters' findings, responding only that: "Our focus is on doing the right thing for customers - fixing the recalled vehicles as quickly as possible, addressing our civic and legal responsibilities and setting a new industry standard for safety."
Comment: A fine of $35 million is merely a little slap on the wrist. They knew about it since 2004 and most likely all the way back to 2001, but did nothing until February 2014. That is simply criminel and only goes to show that psychopaths care nought about human beings.