nearly onethird of gm ignition switch compensation fund claims were for prebankruptcy accidents creditdrew angerer for the new york timesdec 10 2015washington as general motors publicly expressed remorse over its decadelong failure to disclose defective ignition switches it successfully fought to retain its protection from any lawsuits for crashes that occurred before its 2009 bankruptcyinstead gm offered compensation to those victims on its own terms with a fund run by the lawyer kenneth r feinberg and limited to 26 million small cars that were recalled in early 2014now the scope of that toll has become clearer more than 100 or nearly onethird of the switchrelated death and injury claims approved by mr feinberg were for accidents that happened before the companys bankruptcy filing the data was included in the final status report on the gm compensation fund issued early thursday by mr feinbergthe legal strategy had been part of a broader effort by gm the nations largest automaker to move past the biggest safety scandal in its historygm stepped up to its responsibility for the ignition switches but they made a decision to limit their larger financial exposure to prebankruptcy cases said cindy schipani a law professor at the university of michiganmr feinberg said in his report that 399 death and injury claims out of 4343 claims filed were found eligible for compensation they include 124 deaths 18 catastrophic injuries and 257 other types of injuries he said that 128 of the approved claims or 32 percent of the total were for accidents that happened before gm went bankruptwhile mr feinberg declined to comment further on details of the fund his final report said that gms potential legal defenses were ignored in the process of determining damagesthe program did not consider legal defenses that might otherwise be available to gm in litigation such as contributory negligence statutes of limitations or the bankruptcy shieldthe report also showed that many claims were settled by the fund despite evidence that the victims were speeding driving recklessly or under the influence of alcohol or drugs or not wearing a seatbelt in all about 61 percent of the eligible claims involved one or more factors characterized as contributory negligence by drivers of the vehicles the report saidfor example the report said that 124 of the eligible claims involved a victim who was not wearing a seatbelt excessive speeding was cited in 151 cases and drug or alcohol use was present in 68 casesa gm spokesman james cain said on wednesday that the compensation fund was designed to take a nonadversarial approach to settling claims in which people were killed or injured because faulty switches had suddenly cut engine power and disabled airbags in affected modelsgm he said decided not to challenge damage awards if other factors like driver errors were involvedwe faced the ignition switch issue with integrity dignity and clear determination to do the right thing both in the short and long term mr cain said the settlement facility is just one exampleover all