. >> reporter: the night brooke melton died, her dad made a promise. >> i whispered, brooke, i will vindicate your accident, because i knew it was not her fault. >> reporter: the 29-year-old was driving her '05 cobalt when the black box data shows the ignition abruptly shut down. mark hood testified for the family in its suit against gm, which ultimately was settled for an undisclosed amount. he says the faulty ignition slipped out of run because of this critical part called a plunger. >> this is the spring loaded plunger that holds the switch in position. >> reporter: it fits into each slot, holding the ignition switch in run or accessory. the problem is, hood says, this tiny part in recalled vehicle was too short, making it possible for the ignition to shift while driving. the air bags are disabled, the power steering is disabled and the power brakes are disabled. >> reporter: during the 2007 model year gm replaced the old part with this one, a longer plunger. the difference, 1.6 millimeters, the width of a quarter. >> the longer plunger and longer spring is more likely to stay in the run p

. >> reporter: in march 2010, brook melton lost control of her cobalt and fatally crashed.ne of 13 deaths linked to a defective ignition switch on a gm vehicle, in which it failed to warn the public about after ten years. >> we deposed all of the engineers after brooks' death in 2010. these are the engineers who participated in the design of the vehicle in 2004 and covered up this problem from 2004 t to 2014. >> gm settled with the melton family in the fall, and the company recalled over 1.5 million vehicles with defective ignitions reporting the criminal kobe i probe in new york in why it took gm a decade to react. taking aim at gm and the national highway administration. >> the problems always start with the manufacturers. 1924 hol they hold all the carde expect regulators to do what they're hired to do, which is to monitor the product products pre marketplace. >> initiated on february 13th of this year and covering more than 700,000 vehicles the recall was expanded two weeks later to encompass 1.6 million vehicles. >> as the scrutiny starts to pick up on the company they

that's lance cooper, a georgia attorney who sued and settled with gm on behalf of the family of brooke melton, a 29-year-old who died on her birthday in 2010 when her '05 chevy cobalt crashed. >> it was her birthday. i just kept thinking, it's her birthday, it just can't happen on her birthday. >> reporter: according to the information, her ignition shut off, turning off the power system, and locked her brakes. >> she hydroplaned, went across two lanes of traffic and was hit in the side by another car. >> reporter: this is the type of car key at issue. gm says in its recall that weight, like a heavy dangling key chain, can cause it to move. see that large opening? in 2005, gm engineers proposed redesigning the key to replace this slot with a hole. gm says this design was initially approved but later cancelled. instead, the company ordered these inserts for any customer who came into a dealership complaining of an ignition problem. only 474 inserts were handed out. lawyers at this deposition last june asked gary altman the former program engineering manager for the chevy cobalt, why. >> it mad

the meltons don't buy it. brookition shutoff days before she died on march 10th, 2010. >> i'm bubbling over with anger. i'm overwhelmed by anger. if we had just known this information, my daughter would still be here today. and you can just imagine how that makes me feel. >> now, gms has come under heavy criticism for not allowing the recall sooner. gm is likely to face a $35 million fine. >>> there are two big recalls from honda and chrysler. honda is recalling almost 900,000 odyssey minivans from 2009 through 2009 because of a fuel pump cracker that can cause a leak. cas leer is recalling 18,000 fiat because the transmission shifter can be delayed or shop working. >>> tomorrow marks two years since the disappearance of sierra lamar, the morgan hill teen who disappeared on her way to school. volunteers have conducted more than 500 searches but have yet to find her. how sierra's family is coping and where search crews looked today. >> reporter: the search to find sierra took to the west hills. >> good luck. >> repor

. >> in march, 2010, 29-year-old nurse brook melton lost control of her 2005 car and fatally crashed. 113 deaths linked to a defective ignition switch on g.m. vehicles in which lawyers from her family say the automakers failed to warp the public about for 10 years. >> we deposed all of the engineers after brook's death in 2010. they participated in the design of the vehicle in 2004, and covered up this problem from 2004-2014. >> g.m. settled with her family in the fall and last month, the company recalled over a million and a half vehicles with defective ignitions, reportedly spawning a criminal probe by the u.s. attorney's office in new york as well as investigations by u.s. safety regulators and congress into why it took g.m. a decade to act. in a statement monday, house energy and commerce committee chair fred upton took aim at g.m. and the national highway traffic safety administration, asking did the company or regulators miss something that could have flagged these problems sooner. >> the problems always start with the manufactures. they hold all the cards. we expect our regulat

it's all because of 29-year-old brook melton as she was driving down the highway without warning her chevy cobalt crashed. it was shut down and crashed into oncoming traffic. she died of her injuries. brook had taken her cobalt to a car dealer to fix the ignition shutoff a few days before she died. the ignition had essentially slipped into accessory mode and that effectively cuts almost all the power to the car. records suggest that gm knew about the defective ignition for more than a decade but gm's new ceo said gm acted without hesitation to incorporate fixes. last month gm recalled more than a million 1/2 vehicles to correct the problem. melton's family is outraged. >> i'm bubbling over with anger. i am overwhelmed by anger. if we had just known this information, my daughter would still be here today. >> an auto safety group claims the defect is tied to 303 deaths but gm says the new report is misrepresenting raw crash data. gm says it has traced the defect to at least 12 deaths. >>> there are also other big recalls from honda and chrysler to tell you about. honda is recalling alm

four years ago this week, brook melton never made it home.was her 29th birthday. >> we stay in a constant state of grief. >> the '05 chevy cobalt was among the 1.6 million cars gm recalled last month. according to black box data, her ignition had shut off, turning off the power steering system and anti-lock brakes. >> she hydroplaned, went across two lanes of traffic and was hit in the side by another car. >> i kept thinking, it's her birthday, this can't happen. it's her birthday. >> ken and beth melton are among the families who have sued the carmaker. they've settled for an undisclosed sum. >> i'm still in shock and boiling over with anger. >> from their civil lawsuit against gm, deposition showed that in 2005, gm proposed a solution making it less likely to switch off. changing this key slot to a smaller hole, so it couldn't support a heavy chain that might make the key move around, but a top engineer made a decision, not to make the partial fix, a fix experts would have said would have cost about a dollar per car. the gm engineer went on

. >> reporter: ken melton will never forget the night four years ago when he got the call. his daughter, brook. police said at the time it was her fault. eshe had lost control. >> even though i knew she was gone i reached over and kissed her forehead and whispered in her ear. i know she heard me. i whispered in her ear, brook, i will vindicate your death. >> reporter: gm has recalled 2.4 million cars because of problems with the ignitions including the 2005 chevy cobalt that brook was driving. the cars have a faulty ignition switch. the switch can switch to accessory which cuts power to the engine and causes vehicles to lose power steering. that is what investigators say happened in brook's accident. >> beyond the review. >> reporter: in a statement that only reopened the pain the new ceo of general motors admits the company knew about the problem years before his daughter died. >> something went wrong with our process in this instance and terrible things happened. >> reporter: cnn has learned general motors is facing a criminal investigation into the handling of the deadly defect. the company