The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is expanding its probe into 286,000 General Motors vehicles in the U.S. over a possible engine failure issue, the safety regulator said on Monday, following several complaints, despite a recall.
The NHTSA said the issue stems from engine bearing failures in GM’s L87 6.2-liter engine installed in models such as the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and Cadillac Escalade.
The regulator opened a preliminary investigation into the issues in January, which led to a recall in April.
GM had said the connecting rod and crankshaft engine components may have manufacturing defects that can lead to engine damage or failure, boosting the risk of a crash.
The NHTSA on Monday upgraded the probe to an engineering analysis on the basis of 1,157 reports of engine bearing failure.
The regulator will also assess the potential safety-related issues of vehicles built outside the recall scope.
(Reporting by Nandan Mandayam in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Shinjini Ganguli)
What prompted this month’s column was an agent inquiry about an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid on a processing plant that resulted in food spoilage and likely a business interruption claim when 80% of the plant’s workforce might need to be replaced and retrained in order to reopen. The insured in this case was facing a denial citing the Government Action exclusion in his causes of loss form.
This occurred at the same time that I was preparing to participate as a presenter in a webinar for attorneys on the Government Action exclusion found in ISO commercial property causes of loss forms, homeowners forms, and their personal auto policy. The two other presenters were defense attorneys who worked primarily for insurers. I was asked to present from a policyholder perspective. I couldn’t debate the application of the exclusion which virtually all courts had found to be clear and unambiguous. I could only challenge the absolute nature of the exclusion as being overly broad.
As best as I can tell, these exclusions were added to ISO’s commercial property line in July 1988 and to their homeowners program in October 2000. A limited version of the exclusion was added to their personal auto policy in December 1989 and broadened significantly in June 1994. Oddly, the exclusion does not appear in ISO’s primary business auto coverage form.