General Motors Corporation Airbag and Seatbelt failed to protect during head-on crash. Caused Head Injury Detroit Michigan

The following information is being provided in hopes of putting pressure on a Mega Car Builder to properly investigate car accidents, especially one like this that went terribly wrong. The Manufacturer truly wanted our money, you can tell by the ads being made, but lacks effort in maintaining a safe product. Let's start from the beginning.

My wife is a teacher who travels 85 miles a day to work. We decided that the daily trip was wasting fuel by driving a large car when a small car made more sense. We needed a car that provided good gas mileage. Being an Old Chevrolet fan (my first car was a GM Caprice Classic) we went to our local Chevy dealer and purchased a new little yellow Aveo. The Aveo was listed by GM as having a 5-star frontal impact rating, so this was the small car for me. I later found-out the Aveo received a very, very, very, very poor impact protection score of only 1.5 stars out of a possible 5 stars from EURO-NCAP. It seems the Euro NCAP's test is far more accurate. What they were worried about happened.

My daughter had came home from college and asked if she could drive the Aveo to pick up some Pizza. We had planned on giving the Car to her later in the year as a college graduation present. So I was glad to see that she wanted to drive it. I waved to her from the porch as she drove away. This was the last time I would feel good about Chevrolet products, and it was the last time I would see the cute little Aveo intact.

Less than 5 minutes later, my life would be changed. My daughter was struck by a driver of a Ford F150 Pickup truck who crossed into her lane, they crashed head-on. The accident caused her body to be thrown like a rag-doll into the windshield. She hit hard, real hard. The Aveo was struck so hard that it knocked the car backwards 14 feet into a ditch. Her head striking and shattering the windshield glass on impact was the only thing that stopped her body from being ejected out of the car. She was carried to the hospital with multiple injuries. She was wearing a seatbelt. No Airbags ever deployed. No seatbelt locked (they have explosive pins that lock the belt). It was a head-on accident and none of the emergency safety devices protected her. How could this happen? It's a Chevrolet!

Being a past Firefighter, Fire Chief, Emergency Management Director, and Public Safety Director, I have seen far more car accidents than I would care to remember. But to date, except for this vehicle, I had never seen a car equipped with Airbags which was hit head-on, much less hit by a truck, which did not deploy the Airbags or lock the seatbelts. It was evident that something went very, very wrong. In most cars, the on board computer could be electrically probed by the manufacture to find the cause of events. It's a type of "Black Box". I contacted Chevrolet personally to have them inspect the car so others could be saved from such a dim fate. To my surprise a representative from General Motors (GM) said that they did not build the car, Daewoo did, and that I would need to send the computer to Korea since GM USA lacked the software to interrogate it. In other words, "to find out what happened". I soon found that Chevrolet knew they lacked the capability to collect information from the Aveo since 2004. How could Chevrolet make Aveo's safer, reduce injuries in the future, knowing the agency lacked this basic computer program? Chevy knew of the problem yet sold the cars anyway. Money always comes first, doesn't it! I feel it is the responsibility of Chevrolet to keep customers who purchased their products safe as possible. But, if this was truly being done, my car would have already had its computer-brain sitting at a testing laboratory finding the cause for the deployment failure. Or maybe they already know what happened? But the computer-brain still sits in my garage.

Chevrolet did send a person to see the wrecked car. He identified himself as a Private Investigator from Atlanta, GA who was only there to take pictures. We told him that the most important Goal for us was to get our Aveo to a Chevrolet testing facility to find out what caused the problem before another person could go through the same events of my daughter. Two local mechanics and a Geico insurance adjuster all believe that there is a major problem with the car. The adjuster stated that: "he believes the Airbags and Electronic Seatbelts should have provided rider protection, and could have saved my daughter from injury if they had worked properly". And myself, in my professional opinion, as a fire fighter who was a trainer of Airbag operations and deployment, I firmly agree that the Airbags and Seat Belts should have been activated by the impact, yet they didn't. As it stood, my daughter was in the hospital, yet not one of the four people in the Ford truck were seriously injured. The impact was so severe that it tore a front wheel from the trucks frame and launched the wheel 50 feet away. Yet no Aveo Airbags or Seatbelts deployed. And Chevrolet doesn't see this as a problem.

Today, the vehicle is sitting in my hanger, and no-one from GM (except the PI) has ever seen the car in person. I could not believe that the most important person GM could send was a private detective to take pictures, not a mechanic who could have found the problem and reported it back.

Problems like this need to stop. We spend our hard earned money buying vehicles we are being told are safe. I bet the saleswomen told us three times the Aveo had a 5 star safety rating. We as Car owners must stop buying from manufacturers who do not care about events like these. Their arrogance is beyond belief.

The latest update is: 1. My daughters (Crystal's) injuries mended. She graduated from college with honors. Worked as a Cast-Character this summer for Disney. She is getting ready to go to medical school this fall. 2. GM sent a letter that they would pay her medical bills. We never sent any bills to them. They did graciously offer to send the computer-brain to Korea if I had it removed. 3. As for cars, we bought two Toyota's and a F150 and we love them. Chevrolet will never have my business again. Ever!!! That will cost them about $400,000 in my life-time. And I will never own a Corvette again. I've had three.

I travel throughout the US as a Fire Operations Consultant. Fire Departments throughout the US knew of Crystal's wreck. I always thank them for their concern, and I take the time to tell them this story. They are always shocked, as I am. Our family went through a lot of pain, yet their lack of concern made the pain that much more painful!

PS: I have emails from GM representatives that affirm these statements are true.

Harold
Sylvania, Georgia
U.S.A.

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