1996 DODGE GRAND CARAVAN — Complaint #212678
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about CHILD SEAT:HARNESS BUCKLE:INFANT filed May 19, 2000
NHTSA complaint #212678 (ODI reference 722601) concerns a 1996 DODGE GRAND CARAVAN and was filed on May 19, 2000. The owner reports the failure occurred on March 1, 1999. The report was geocoded to Illinois based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as child seat:harness buckle:infant, 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. No VIN was supplied by the filer, so this complaint contributes to model-year trend data but cannot be tied to a specific vehicle.
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:harness buckle:infant 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 1996 DODGE GRAND CARAVAN shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
CHILD TRAPPED IN SEAT UNABLE TO RELEASE CHILD RESTRAINT. *AK
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 212678 |
| ODI Number | 722601 |
| Date Filed | May 19, 2000 |
| Failure Date | March 1, 1999 |
Similar CHILD SEAT:HARNESS BUCKLE:INFANT Complaints for 1996 DODGE GRAND CARAVAN
CONSUMER STATES THE BUILT IN CHILD SAFETY SEAT LATCH PINCHES BOTH INFANTS WHO USE THIS SEAT, BOTH OF THE CHILDREN ARE WELL UNDER THE 50 POUND LIMIT FOR THE SEAT. *SLC
CONSUMER STATES THE BUILT IN CHILD SAFETY SEAT LATCH PINCHES BOTH INFANTS WHO USE THIS SEAT, BOTH OF THE CHILDREN ARE WELL UNDER THE 50 POUND LIMIT FOR THE SEAT. *SLC
WHILE TRYING TO GET THE CHILD OUT OF THE CHILD SAFETY SEAT IN THE VEHICLE, THE CONSUMER COULD'NT GET THE CHILD OUT DUE TO THE HARNESS STRAP BUCKLE WOULD'NT COME OFF. THE CONSUMER HAD TO TAKE THE CHIL
THE BUCKLE CAME LOOSE SO THAT THE CHILD IS NOT PROPERLY RESTRAINED IN THE VEHICLE. DEALER IS GOING TO REPLACE . *AK
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.