Rear seatbelt came unlatched in collision

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ihadmail

10 Year
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This morning a car pulled out in front of me and I couldn't avoid a collision. Everyone was OK and the damage to the LX was minimal.

My concern is that the 2nd row center seat belt, which holds my 4 year old son's car seat in place, unlatched during the accident. There was nothing that could have depressed the red unlatch button. It was fully latched prior to the accident.

Is this something that any of you have seen before? Should I simply source a new seatbelt latch for the center position?

Seat:
image.webp


Collision damage:
image.webp
 
maybe the car seat came forwarded and then down on the button... scary .. glad everyone is ok. I know most people put seats in the middle because its easy for other kids to get in and out but you do run the risk of one of the passengers pressing the red button and it is in a position where it is hard to check every time. When mine were in seats I had several times where the older one for what ever reason pressed the red button... :rolleyes:
 
I have not attempted to reconnect the belt yet. I had the child seat out last week and reinstalled it.

When reinstalling I click the latch together and while pressing down on the seat with my knee pull the belt as tight as humanly possible before closing the belt retainer on the child seat. There is no chance it was partially closed.

I've had no passengers, including my son, since the seat was reinstalled.

It is a possibility that the force of the collision caused the seat to somehow depress the button but I see that as pretty unlikely.
 
Trunk Monkey said:
Have you tried clicking it back in and yanking on it forcefully? I can't remember 100% but I want to say the center belt won't fully latch into the passenger latch, make sure it's in the correct one.
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This.

It is highly highly highly unlikely that a correctly latched belt will unlatch by itself. This is by design. Either it wasn't latched correctly in the correct "receiver", or during the collision the belt or something else pressed the release.

On a side note: I don't know your exact model child seat, but judging by the photo it looks as if the "diagonal" part of the car seat belt is not tensioned correctly. I could be wrong, just judging by the photo.

Side note 2: we don't use those large car seats at 4 years old anymore here. Not judging, just interesting to see the differences.

EDIT: I see you have responded while I was typing my response. Interesting issue and worth looking into.
 
I am glad everyone is ok. This is scary, I have the same truck and car seats. I hope as others mentioned that the seat came back after collision to unlatch. I'd imagine the seat would have made it a lot further if that wasn't the case.

To address feddomw, in GA, children need to be in/on something until 8 years old. Our car seats are rated to hold a "normal" 8 year old. Also, I'm not sure what you mean about the 'diagonal' part? The grey clamp is clamped on the other side. When the belt is latched on this side, the clamp won't get it to belt (too low).

I can't imagine the belt wasn't latched when you were tugging on the seat and belt to get it all set. Do you use the center/rear latch?

If you have any thoughts or premonitions about what happened that you'd rather not share publicly, please PM me and I'll send you my number to discuss in case I need to make adjustments in my truck.

Thanks!
 
In SC children must be in a seat similar to this until a certain height/weight. My 4YO does not meet the weight requirement to move up to a booster seat.

@camino70 you are correct about the diagonal piece of the seat belt. It is properly aligned and attached to the seat on the other side. I have not been using the upper tether, after this I will find a suitable location to latch it in the rear though.

I really wish I had the LATCH system, as I prefer using the latch and the seat belt simultaneously.

I have no ideas at all, nor any other additional information, as to how or why this could have happened. Hopefully I have a faulty seat belt latch. When I get home from work I will reattach the seat belt without the car seat in and try my best to get it to unlatch. I can also reinstall the seat as it was and snap some pics from various angles, maybe someone else sees something that I'm missing.
 
You do have the LATCH system in middle and driver side 2nd row. And from the pix your car seat also has the LATCH system.

The top tether is critical for both LATCH and non-LATCH right? There is designated top tether attachment behind the 2nd row.


On edit, I just realized earlier models may not have LATCH? Not 100% but maybe that's the issue. Our 04 has it and is used daily.
 
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It could be the accident and the impact caused the unused latch belt (which runs through the same channel as the regular belt) to strike at just the right point to release the center belt. I try to wrap mine somewhere under the chair when not in use.
 
lead62 said:
It could be the accident and the impact caused the unused latch belt (which runs through the same channel as the regular belt) to strike at just the right point to release the center belt. I try to wrap mine somewhere under the chair when not in use.
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You very well could be onto something here. I had not considered the possibility of that unused latch tether from the seat swinging around enough to hit that red button.
 
camino70 said:
To address feddomw, in GA, children need to be in/on something until 8 years old. Our car seats are rated to hold a "normal" 8 year old. Also, I'm not sure what you mean about the 'diagonal' part? The grey clamp is clamped on the other side. When the belt is latched on this side, the clamp won't get it to belt (too low).
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Good point. It's been a few years since my kids were in "full" seats and I forgot how the setup works, there are two latches to cinch down the belts, one on each side.... my bad.

I live in the country with the tallest people in the world (I am well below average at 6ft) and our kids generally graduate to booster seats at 4. Because they can, height-wise, and because parents want it ASAP because booster seats are so much easier to deal with compared to full seats.

But I digress.

About the latch tether: does it have enough mass to hit the red button and force a release?
 
The tether end weighs in somewhere around 10-12oz. It's steel with plastic around it.

I would believe that the force involved with bringing 5500lbs +/- from 15mph to 0mph instantly would generate quite a bit of force from that little tether latch.
 
The weight of the vehicle has no effect on the potential energy of the unused tether. The only force you have in this theory is 10-12oz traveling at 15mph. Doesn't seem to me there's enough force there to unlatch it.
 
You can turn the seatbelt buckle (the part with the red button), 180 degrees before fastening it. This will prevent foreign items, including 4 yr old fingers, from accidentally unbuckling it.
 
Several years ago I owned a Toyota Celica that was recalled to have the seat belt replaced. A piece of plastic in the female end of some latches broke off inside and prevented the latch from fully closing. It was not possible to determine through use or external inspection whether the part had failed. The belt acted latched even though it wouldn't hold in a collision. The entire drivers side belt was replaced in the recall. Take a careful look inside the latch on yours to make sure there is nothing in the mechanism that might be preventing full closure.
 
Sandroad said:
Several years ago I owned a Toyota Celica that was recalled to have the seat belt replaced. A piece of plastic in the female end of some latches broke off inside and prevented the latch from fully closing. It was not possible to determine through use or external inspection whether the part had failed. The belt acted latched even though it wouldn't hold in a collision. The entire drivers side belt was replaced in the recall. Take a careful look inside the latch on yours to make sure there is nothing in the mechanism that might be preventing full closure.
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I am pretty sure we would have heard if there was a general failure on the seatbelts of the LC/LX. The cars are more than 10 years +
 
You have to buy a new latch, wouldn't risk reusing the old one. Phone toyota and see what they say, they might want to look at the old latch to inspect, im sure they would take something that is safety critical seriously. They wouldn't get to know of these issues if people didn't report.
 
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I'd test it thoroughly, my last Ford F-250 had latches that would randomly unlatch themselves when driving or pulled too hard. Replacement was the only option, you don't want used. Also check to make sure no coins fell into the buckle. I've seen foreign objects fall down the slit still allowing the belt to latch but not completely.
 
Julian Stead said:
You have to buy a new latch, wouldn't risk reusing the old one. Phone toyota and see what they say, they might want to look at the old latch to inspect, im sure they would take something that is safety critical seriously. They wouldn't get to know of these issues if people didn't report.
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If Toyota isn't interested, I'd say get a new belt/latch anyway. Around here, the local fire department will check how you have your child seats installed to make sure everything looks correct.
 
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