>> reporter: ben bailey's law firm is suing toyota over the alleged wrongful death of a michigan woman whose 2005 toyota camry crashed after suddenly accelerating out of control. >> reporter: back in 2004 they were already talking about the throttle control system. >> right. >> reporter: so this isn't a new problem that toyota is investigating suddenly. >> right. >> reporter: they knew about it. >> yes. >> reporter: why didn't nhtsa look into it? rather than review the causes of sudden acceleration they decided to exclude two crucial areas. >> they say longer duration incidents involving uncontrollable acceleration where the brakes didn't work are are not within the scope of this investigation. >> reporter: that decision was made after discussions with santucci and another toyota official who also worked for nhtsa. santucci was deposed in december. >> we discussed the scope, nhtsa's concerns about the scope