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2012 LEXUS ES350 — Complaint #1460123

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NHTSA Complaint about AIR BAGS:ON-OFF SWITCH ASSEMBLY filed April 8, 2018

NHTSA complaint #1460123 (ODI reference 11084148) concerns a 2012 LEXUS ES350 and was filed on April 8, 2018. The owner reports the failure occurred on April 25, 2014. The vehicle had 15,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to California based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as air bags:on-off switch assembly, 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: yes, fire: no, injuries: 1, fatalities: 0. A complaint that flags a crash, fire, or fatality is escalated on NHTSA's internal review queue and factors more heavily into any Preliminary Evaluation decision on this make and model. 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 LEXUS ES350 cohort independently describe similar air bags:on-off switch assembly 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 2012 LEXUS ES350 shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.

Vehicle
2012 LEXUS ES350
Component
AIR BAGS:ON-OFF SWITCH ASSEMBLY
Crash
Yes
Injuries
1
State
California
Mileage
15,000 mi

Complaint Description

DRIVER SIDE KNEE AIRBAG CAUSED HEMATOMA, SECOND DEGREE BURN ON L. LEG, RESULTING IN 2 SURGERIES, USE OF WOUND VAC FOR 2 1/2 MONTHS, AND PERMANENT LYMPEDEMA AND SCARRING ON L. CALF. DRIVER HAS REPLACED KNEES THAT ARE AT HIGH RISK IF FURTHER CRASH AND KNEE BAG DEPLOYS AGAIN. DRIVER NEEDS ON-OFF SWITCH INSTALLED FOR DRIVER KNEE AIRBAG. DRIVER WAS NOT AT FAULT IN THIS ACCIDENT AND WANTS KNEE AIRBAGS REMOVED OR AN ON-OFF SWITCH INSTALLED. THE AIRBAG ON STEERING WHEEL DEPLOYED CORRECTLY AND CAUSED NO DAMAGE. THE KNEE AIRBAG IS A DANGER TO DRIVER.

Complaint Details

NHTSA Complaint ID 1460123
ODI Number 11084148
Date Filed April 8, 2018
Failure Date April 25, 2014
VIN JTHBK1EG4C2

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