GM Roped Off A Safe Zone To Protect CEO Mary Barra From Rapid Reporters

General Motors CEO Mary Barra is in town for the New York Auto Show this week, and the media is swarming her at every opportunity to get her thoughts on the automaker's ongoing recall of millions of cars.

Tuesday afternoon, things got a bit physical as Barra was surrounded by reporters after she spoke at the JD Power Automotive Forum:

Breaking CEO Mary Barra Spoke In NY - One Of The Worst Scrums To Date - GM Product Chief Mark Reuss Working Crowd Control #GMrecall

- jeff bennett (@jeffbennettwsj) April 15, 2014

.@GMdudeinNA had to help with crowd control, had reporters sticking arms over shoulder -- like this one -- to try to hear @GM CEO

- David Shepardson (@davidshepardson) April 15, 2014

$GM CEO Barra post-speech scrum: "Back up!" "We Can't!" Then a lot of pushing and shoving as reporters/photogs jockey for position

- Phil LeBeau (@Lebeaucarnews) April 15, 2014

So when Barra made her next public appearance in New York, at a Chevrolet event introducing the Corvette Z06 Convertible and the Trax small SUV (for the U.S. market), GM's team took a few precautions.

Barra spoke on stage, and before the media was invited to come up for a closer look at the cars, she retreated into a small roped off area.

Smart move - the crowd was immediately all over her.

Barra answered questions for a while, and didn't have to push through any reporters to leave the stage. She just used the door right behind her. Everyone cleared out.

Lots of the crowd then jumped on Mark Reuss, GM's head of global product. Once he was done talking, he stepped into the safe zone and used the same door to slip away.

It's worth noting the Chevrolet event did include a couple of cars. GM is bringing the Trax small SUV to the U.S. market later this year.

And the Corvette Z06 convertible looks stunning. Reuss announced it will go from 0 to 60 mph in under 3.5 seconds.