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1997 TOYOTA CAMRY — Complaint #117611

Open-data reference.

NHTSA Complaint about CHILD SEAT:RETRACTOR filed October 10, 1998

NHTSA complaint #117611 (ODI reference 539626) concerns a 1997 TOYOTA CAMRY and was filed on October 10, 1998. The owner reports the failure occurred on August 5, 1998. The report was geocoded to Ohio based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as child seat:retractor, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.

The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 1, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.

Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same TOYOTA CAMRY cohort independently describe similar child seat:retractor failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 1997 TOYOTA CAMRY shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.

Vehicle
1997 TOYOTA CAMRY
Component
CHILD SEAT:RETRACTOR
Injuries
1
State
Ohio

Complaint Description

WHILE TRAVELING ON HIGHWAY 3-YEAR OLD, WHO WAS SEATING IN A CAR SEAT DIRECTLY BEHIND DRIVER'S SEAT, RAPPED REAR SHOULDER BELT AROUND HIS NECK WITH TENSION SET, ALMOST WAS CHOKED BY BELT. POLICE OFFICER HAD TO CUT SEAT BELT OFF SON'S NECK WITH A KNIFE.

Complaint Details

NHTSA Complaint ID 117611
ODI Number 539626
Date Filed October 10, 1998
Failure Date August 5, 1998
VIN 4T1BG22KXVU

Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.