Car (child) seat crashworthiness

NHTSA received a petition involving subject production year 2015 Britax Frontier ClickTight XE booster seats commonly used for children 2-years old and older weighing between 25-90 pounds while traveling in a vehicle. The Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) opened Defect Petition DP20-003 for a November 2019 crash event involving a subject seat. The crash involved a Model Year (MY) 2016 Nissan Rogue striking a telephone pole in a frontal collision. A subject seat, installed at the driver side rear seat, experienced a structural failure allowing the harness to pull through the seat back. According to a police report, this failure contributed to the death of a 4-year-old occupant. Notably there were two other occupants in the Rogue who survived the crash with injuries, the driver and a 3-year-old who was seated in a different make/model car seat at the rear passenger side seat position. During the DP, ODI sent Britax a letter (dated April 17, 2020) requesting, amongst other things, a count of allegations of "the subject seat failing structurally during, or otherwise incurring structural damage as a result of, a vehicular crash event." Subject seats were defined as all Frontier Clicktight seats, regardless of production year. In its response of May 28, 2020, Britax identified a single allegation, the same crash event that was the subject of the Defect Petition received by ODI. Additionally, ODI conducted an inspection of the incident seat and vehicle, confirming the failure of the seat back and restraint system, and the significant damage to the front of the subject vehicle. To date, no determination as to the cause of the incident seat structural failure has been established, either by ODI or Britax. In addition, questions exist regarding the installation and prior usage of the incident seat. ODI is granting petition DP20-003 and opening a Preliminary Evaluation (PE21-007) to broaden the scope of its information request to include potential structural failure allega