A single wrongful-death case did more than any other to expose one of the largest auto-safety scandals in recent history. Here is the short version.
Brooke Melton, a 29-year-old Georgia pediatric nurse, died in March 2010 when her 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt suddenly lost power on a wet highway, disabling the power steering and airbags moments before it was struck by an oncoming vehicle. Her parents’ investigation traced the failure to a defective ignition switch whose detent spring was too weak — the slightest bump could knock the key from “Run” to “Accessory,” shutting off the engine and the airbags.
That defect became the basis for General Motors’ 2014 recall of roughly 2.6 million small cars, after it emerged that GM engineers had known of the problem for years — even quietly redesigning the switch without changing its part number. The defect was ultimately linked to more than 100 deaths.
The Melton family settled with GM once in 2013 (reportedly $5 million), then reopened the case, alleging GM had concealed evidence and that a GM witness gave false testimony. In March 2015, GM settled that renewed claim on confidential terms — the wrongful-death suit that spurred millions of recalls.
Takeaway: the Melton case is a textbook example of how a single product-liability claim can uncover systemic concealment and drive an industry-wide safety reckoning.
Read more: NBC News — GM Settles Second Ignition Suit Over Death of Brooke Melton in Cobalt Crash