GM Seeks New Trial in Fiery Crash : Automobiles: The auto maker claims to have new witnesses likely to bring a different verdict and a reduction in the $105-million jury award.

General Motors Corp. is seeking a new trial in a lawsuit in which a jury awarded $105 million to the parents of a boy who died in a fiery pickup crash. GM says new witnesses have come forward.

GM filed a motion for a new trial Monday, saying the evidence will “almost certainly” bring a different verdict.

But a lawyer for the family that sued GM called the motion a publicity stunt.

GM said in court documents it has two witnesses who can testify that 17-year-old Shannon Moseley of Snellville died before his truck caught fire.

Last month, a state jury found the world’s biggest auto maker negligent in the design of the fuel tank in the pickup and ordered GM to pay $101 million in punitive damages and $4.2 million in compensatory damages to Elaine and Thomas Moseley.

Whether Moseley died immediately was a crucial issue in the trial.

GM said the jury’s punitive damages award should be thrown out unless it can be shown that Moseley suffered in the crash.

In its court papers, GM said witnesses Donald Sutherland and Peter Lashway have given statements that Moseley did not move or scream while the truck burned. Witnesses at the trial said they heard Moseley scream while trying to escape from the burning truck.

GM said the new witnesses arrived just after the crash, before police got there.

But Jim Butler, the Moseley family’s Columbus, Ga., attorney, said the new claims fail to prove Moseley did not suffer.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is studying allegations that 4.7 million 1973-1987 GM trucks are unsafe because fuel tanks located outside the frame rails can cause fires in side crashes.

The company opposes a recall and says the fuel-tank design complied with federal safety standards.