Investigations
Child seat harness may not restrain occupant in the event of a crash.
NHTSA Preliminary Evaluation PE24026 — closed, opened 2024-09-18.
NHTSA investigation PE24026 is a Preliminary Evaluation opened on 2024-09-18 and currently closed. The subject is tracked inside the Office of Defects Investigation queue. Latest activity on this investigation was logged on 2025-04-22 — NHTSA updates that field whenever an Information Request goes out, a supplement is filed, or a status change is recorded in the public docket.
A Preliminary Evaluation like PE24026 is the entry point of the federal defect-investigation process. NHTSA engineers scan complaint databases, field reports, and manufacturer data to decide whether an Engineering Analysis is warranted, whether a voluntary recall is already sufficient, or whether the pattern does not rise to a defect finding.
Investigators summarized the matter as follows: "On April 18, 2024, the Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) received a Defect Petition (DP) requesting the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) investigate Nuna Rava child seats for a harness that can..." Investigations are the early-warning layer of the federal auto-safety system, sitting upstream of formal recalls and defect orders. Whether this one closes without action or escalates into an Engineering Analysis, the full history stays in the ODI archive so researchers, litigators, and buyers can pull the paper trail at any time.
Investigation Summary
On April 18, 2024, the Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) received a Defect Petition (DP) requesting the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) investigate Nuna Rava child seats for a harness that can allegedly loosen without pressing the harness release button. The Petitioner stated there were 24 complaints in the NHTSA database all describing a similar issue. According to the Petitioner, "this condition has poor detectability and the consequence of failure in case of a crash would be severe or fatal injury". On April 25, 2024, ODI received a second DP requesting NHTSA investigate Nuna child seats for a similar allegation as the initial petition. Upon receiving these petitions, ODI sent an Information Request (IR) letter to Nuna on May 16, 2024, asking for information regarding the petitioners’ allegations. Nuna responded to ODI’s IR letter on June 21, 2024. On July 18, 2024, Nuna submitted a supplemental response to ODI’s IR letter. After evaluating the petitioner’s allegations and Nuna’s responses to ODI’s IR letter, ODI decided to grant the petition and open this defect investigation. On September 18, 2024 ODI opened PE24026 on the 2020-2022 Nuna Rava child seats. These seats had significantly higher failure rates than other model year Nuna Rava child seats analyzed in the DP IR response. Following a meeting with ODI to discuss precedent recalls from peer manufacturers, Nuna filed recall 24C-002 on November 27 th , 2024. This recall affected Nuna Rava child seats manufactured from July 16, 2016, to October 25, 2023, which covered the entire scope of PE24026. After submitting this recall, Nuna requested relief from responding to a new IR letter ODI sent on October 24, 2024 for PE24026. ODI granted partial relief but required Nuna to respond to some of the requests. After receiving recall 24C-002 and Nuna’s partial PE24026 IR response, ODI is closing this investigation with recall 24C-002. The Agency reserves the right to take additional action
About This Investigation Type
A Preliminary Evaluation (PE) is the first phase of NHTSA's investigation process. It is opened when the agency identifies a potential safety defect pattern, usually triggered by consumer complaints, manufacturer reports, or field monitoring. During a PE, NHTSA gathers information to determine whether a formal engineering analysis is warranted.
Data from NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation. Cross-references: NHTSA recall campaign API and NHTSA FARS where fatality records overlap. PlainCars does not rate or recommend vehicles. Learn more.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.