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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

After crash death, family advocates for changes in car safety recalls

In the Gass family, the phrase “Live Like Lara” is more than a slogan used to keep Lara Gass’ memory alive after she was killed in a car crash caused by a faulty ignition switch. It’s a reminder to seize the day, because there may be no more tomorrows.

It’s also a reminder that there’s much work to do to reform how the auto industry responds to safety recalls.

Lara Gass, a Mead High School and University of Washington graduate, was two months away from graduating from the Washington and Lee University School of Law in Lexington, Virginia, in the spring of 2014. She drove a 2006 Saturn Ion that was the subject of a safety recall.

The ignition switch could fail, the recall notice said, resulting in the loss of power steering, power brakes and airbags. But no parts were available to fix it and the recall notice said owners would be notified when parts were available for repairs, said her mother, Gerri Gass. The notice was received three days before the crash.

Lara Gass was driving on Interstate 81 in Virginia when the ignition switch failed and her car turned off.

“She hit the back of a semitruck at 60 miles per hour,” Gerri Gass said.

Lara Gass died instantly. The three good Samaritans who pulled her from the wreckage before her car burned up noticed that the car’s air bags had not deployed. The car was so completely burned that her identification was destroyed and it took hours for police to identify her from a partially burned law school parking sticker.

She was one of 124 deaths certified by General Motors as being caused by a faulty ignition switch, though the family believes there were more. Most of those who died were young women who didn’t have enough physical strength to get control of their cars after the power steering and brakes failed, said her father, Jay Gass.

The experience has pushed the Gass family into becoming advocates for changes in how recalls work. While car companies may be required to send out recall notices, they’re not required to actually make repairs, the family said. There are no penalties if parts are not available to fix what’s wrong.

“No one at GM has gone to jail for this,” Jay Gass said. “You can kill 124 people and get away with it.”

They also want new laws in place requiring that all recalls be fixed before a used car can be sold. Jay Gass said data shows that about 30 percent of recalled cars are never fixed.

“There’s no law that says anyone has to fix these cars,” he said.

The Gass family received a settlement from General Motors because their daughter’s death was certified. They have not joined a class action lawsuit filed against the car manufacturer.

“We didn’t want to drag it out any further than that,” said her brother, Jason Gass.

The family used the settlement to start the Live Like Lara Foundation and also endowed a scholarship in her name at the law school she attended. Every year they hold two events, a wine tasting on the Washington and Lee campus and a luau in Spokane, to raise money for her favorite charities – Second Harvest, Big Brothers Big Sisters and the Northwest Innocence Project.

The Spokane fundraiser, a pig roast and silent auction on the roof of the Saranac Public House, was held earlier this month. Last year’s event raised enough money for Second Harvest to provide 12,000 meals and allowed Big Brothers Big Sisters to train and do background checks on 15 new volunteers, the family said. Last year the family also donated a large swing set and playground equipment to a homeless shelter in Clarksville, Tennessee, where they now live.

This year’s Spokane event raised nearly $6,000 for the charities.

The family is just trying to continue the work that was important to Lara, Gerri Gass said.

“Lara was very passionate about making the world a better place,” she said. “She just really cared about people.”

While the fundraising and the advocacy are important, they’ll never make Lara’s death easier to deal with, she said.

“It makes us keep her legacy alive,” she said. “It helps us to celebrate her. She lived more than I ever have in her 29 years. I’m also very proud to be her mom.”