1997 DODGE GRAND CARAVAN — Complaint #152555
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about CHILD SEAT:SHELL:BOOSTER filed May 31, 1999
NHTSA complaint #152555 (ODI reference 707019) concerns a 1997 DODGE GRAND CARAVAN and was filed on May 31, 1999. The owner reports the failure occurred on May 30, 1999. The report was geocoded to Florida based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as child seat:shell:booster, 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: 0, 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 DODGE GRAND CARAVAN cohort independently describe similar child seat:shell:booster 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 DODGE GRAND CARAVAN shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
THE HARNESSES ON THE INTEGRATED CHILD RESTRAINT SEATS DO NOT RESTRAIN MY CHILD AT ALL. SHE CAN SIMPLY WIGGLE HER SHOULDERS THROUGH AND CLIMB OUT. SHE HAS WIGGLED HER SHOULDERS AND UPPER BODY THROUGH SEVERAL TIMES AND BEEN STUCK AT THE HIPS. TWICE I HAVE BEEN DRIVING OVER 60 MILES PER HOUR ON THE FLORIDA TURNPIKE AND DISCOVERED THAT SHE HAD COMPLETELY FREED HERSELF FROM THE RESTRAINT AND WAS WALKING AROUND IN THE VAN! THE HARNESS WAS STILL CLIPPED CLOSED, BUT LOOSE. OBVIOUSLY, THIS IS TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE. I NEED HELP FAST. MY DAUGHTER IS ONLY 17 MONTHS OLD AND I WILL HAVE ANOTHER BABY IN JUNE. *AK
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 152555 |
| ODI Number | 707019 |
| Date Filed | May 31, 1999 |
| Failure Date | May 30, 1999 |
| VIN | 1B4GP44R3VB |
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.