Toyota Recalls Nearly 3 Million Vehicles For Seatbelt Malfunction Issue
Global automotive giant Toyota announced Thursday of its plan of recalling some 2.87 million vehicles worldwide over possible seatbelt issue in a preventive damage-control effort to avert potential safety problems whereby metal frame part could slice through a seatbelt in the event of a car crash.
In the United States alone, the recall would affect around 1.12 million RAV4 vehicles (2006-2012 model) and RAV4 EV vehicles (2012-2014 model) according to an official press release by Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc.
The global recall, however, would include 1.33 affected vehicles in North America, 625, 000 in Europe, and 434, 000 in China bringing the entire number to nearly three million as mentioned in a report by Auto News.
Two confirmed incidents of and injury and death caused by the metal frame cutting the seatbelts occurred in the United States and Canada respectively. The Japan carmaker hoped that by recalling the cars, it would pre-empt further injuries resulting from its faulty seatbelts.
The automobile giant also pledged to add more layers of resin covers to the metal set frames and ensure that no metal pieces would cut the safety belts during a crash.
Apart from the latest global car recall, Toyota also faced other safety issues that prompted it to issue recall orders like the one involving defective Takata airbags linked to at least 10 confirmed US deaths triggering massive recall of 30 million vehicles worldwide as mentioned in a report by NBC News.
Ahead of the planned recall, affected consumers will received email notifications beginning the middle of the month. Also, car owners are entitled to additional resin cover for the metal seat frame provided by Toyota car dealers at no cost.
