Rep. Tim Murphy said Tuesday that both General Motors and the nation’s highway safety body “messed up pretty bad” in failing to recall cars with an ignition-switch problem linked to more than a dozen deaths.
Mr. Murphy, Pennsylvania Republican, will hear from GM CEO Mary Barra on Tuesday when he chairs a hearing on the burgeoning scandal Tuesday before his Energy and Commerce Committee panel on oversight and investigations.
“Something terrible went wrong within this company,” Mr. Murphy told MSNBC’s The Daily Rundown.
But he said the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration “also knew something was wrong” and will have to answer for its oversight.
NHTSA’s acting administrator, David Friedman, is also set to testify to Mr. Murphy’s subcommittee.
GM is accused of knowing about the switch problem since 2005, but doing little to rectify the situation.
Since then, relatives of motorists who died in car crashes linked to the problem have come forward and demanded answers from the company, which also received billions in bailout money from the U.S. government after the 2008 economic recession.
GM has recalled millions of vehicles because of the revelations.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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