A federal judge in New York approved a motion filed by prosecutors Wednesday to dismiss a four-year-old case against General Motors.
Reuters is reporting that the case was dismissed after GM fulfilled the terms of its settlement with the government over the ignition switch scandal, which led to an estimated 124 deaths and 275 injuries. The terms included payment of a $900 million fine and three years of monitoring by the federal government.
The report said prosecutors confirmed in their motion to dismiss that GM had complied with the terms of the agreement.
In a statement, GM also confirmed that they had now complied with all conditions of the settlement and had implemented new safety protocols.
"In the past several years, GM has instituted substantial improvements to make safety the company’s top priority," the statement reads. "An entirely new product safety structure was created and has initiated numerous innovations — including the Speak Up for Safety program enabling safety concerns to be reported at all levels of the company at any time."
GM has paid out more than $2.6 billion in fines and settlements since the ignition switch defect, which affected millions of vehicles, became public in 2014. The defect was said to stall cars, causing crashes and, on some occasions, preventing the deployment of airbags.
In 2015, federal prosecutors accused GM of having prior knowledge about the defect and being able to fix it for less than $1 per car. In October, GM settled a lawsuit from 49 state governments for $120 million. That lawsuit found that the auto company knew about the defect as early as 2004.
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