Frequently Asked Questions

About Chrysler Vehicles & Gen3 Safety Belt Buckles*

Q. What is the Gen3 safety belt buckle?
The Gen3 refers to a safety belt buckle installed in many Chrysler, Dodge, Plymouth and Jeep vehicles during the 1990s. In most of these vehicles, the Gen3 buckle was sold with all model years 1994 through at least 2003.

Q. Why is this safety belt buckle a concern?
This particular safety belt buckle has a history of coming open during auto crashes either through accidental depression of the release button or because of false latching.

Q. How many people have been killed or injured as the result of this accidental release?
At least 26 deaths and 42 serious injuries have been linked to Gen 3 seat belt failures. The figures may be much higher however because the public - including police officers at the scene - may not look for evidence of accidental release or false unlatching. Some 10,000 persons each year die in traffic accidents as a result of not having a seat belt securely fastened around them. But how many of these may have been victims of accidental release or false latching? We don't know. But we do know that Chrysler has been aware of the tendency of its safety belts to inadvertently unlatch or falsely latch since 1996, and probably before.

Q. How many vehicles are equipped with the Gen3 safety belt buckle?
We estimate that today 16 million DaimlerChrysler vehicles are equipped with Gen3 seat belt buckles. Chrysler produced about 14 million vehicles (exclusive of Neons and Rams) between 1993 and 2000, including 3.9 million minivans (Dodge Caravan, Dodge Grand Caravan, Plymouth Voyager, Plymouth Grand Voyager, and Chrysler Town & Country). According to sworn testimony from Chrysler, most all DaimlerChrysler vehicles, except the Neon and the Ram, used the Gen3 safety belt at one time or another beginning with the 1994 model year. However, we have seen Gen3 buckles in 1995 Ram pickup trucks.

Q. Why was there a change in the Durango and Dakota?
A Chrysler engineer in the Moran case gave sworn testimony that Chrysler was aware of four or five crash tests where Gen3 buckles accidentally unlatched. These crash tests led engineers involved in the design of the Durango and the Dakota to redesign the Gen3 buckles in these vehicles in order to reduce the danger of accidental release during a crash. According to Chrysler, the engineers working on the Durango and Dakota replaced the Gen3 buckles in those vehicles with the newly designed Gen4 buckle, which was known to be safer.

Q. Why wasn't this done in other vehicles?
We don't know.

Q. What is meant by "accidental release"?
"Accidental release" is when a safety belt becomes unlatched, not because the wearer has intentionally depressed the button , but because something has struck the button causing it to depress and unlatch. Some safety belt buckles protect against this risk. For instance, safety belt buckled designed for Ford and General Motors vehicles are designed according to well-accepted safety standards that minimize this risk. The Gen3 does not meet these same standards.

Q. What is false latching?
False latching occurs when it is possible - because of a design flaw - to insert the latch plate between the lower surface of the pushbutton and the upper surface of the upper buckle frame. The seat belt sounds and feels like it is latched properly, but it is not. DaimlerChrysler began modifying Gen3 seat belts in some models in the Spring of 1996 because of this false latching problem. See False Latching photos.

Q. How is the risk for accidental release measured?
Some members of the auto industry use a "ball test" as an objective measure of a buckle's propensity for inadvertent release. The "ball test" is simple pass-fail. A ball of specified diameter is pressed against a latched buckle, and it either stays latched or it releases. General Motors uses a 30mm ball test. Ford Motor Co. uses a 32mm ball test.

Q. What does Chrysler use?
Chrysler previously used GM's 30mm ball test, but eliminated that test in the design of the Gen3. Chrysler claimed to have used a 40mm ball test (a less stringent test) for the Gen3, but the Gen3 meets neither the 30mm nor the 40mm test. During a video deposition, a Chrysler engineer applied both 30mm and 40mm balls to a Gen3 buckle. The buckle unlatched with each. (A similar demonstration by the engineer using a Gen4 buckle showed the Gen4 did not unlatch during the test).

Q. What distinguishes a Gen3 buckle?
Most buckles have a release button that is flush with the outside cover. On the Gen3 buckle, the button protrudes above the cover.

Q. How much more expensive is the safer Gen4 buckle as compared to the Gen3 buckle?
It cost Chrysler 24-cents per buckle to change from the Gen3 to the Gen4 in the Dakota and the Durango.

Q. Are the Gen3 buckles still being installed in Chrysler vehicles?
Yes. While Chrysler has started using the Gen4 buckle more frequently, Chrysler is still installing Gen3 buckles in some of its vehicles. For example, in 2001, 2002 and 2003 minivans, Chrylser uses an improved, safer buckle in the front seats, but continues to use the Gen3 in the middle and back seats.

Q. What exactly did Chrysler engineers say about the buckle switch to the Dakota and Durango?
Following is an excerpt from testimony of Chrysler engineer Paul Platinga in the Moran case:

• Was there some particular reason for redesigning the Gen3 buckle?
  We -- we had had a couple instances on some development tests where we found that the latch plate was not engaged in the buckle post-test.
  
  
• Was it hypothesized after the test that some object had struck the belt buckle during the test and that that is what caused the buckle to unlatch?
  Yes. We -- we concluded that some object in the vehicle, whether it was a dummy appendage or cabling, instrumentation cabling, contacted the buckle button on the rebound of the event and caused the button to be depressed and the latch plate released.
  
  
• Was it then that you were asked to consider a redesign of the Gen3?
  Yes.
  
  
• So the three of you, that being yourself, Gary Shell and John Sparhawk decided that a redesign of the Gen3 may be necessary?
  We had decided that we should investigate what would need to be changed in order to minimize what we were believing to be happening.
  
  
• Would you agree that what you saw in those tests; that is, the unlatching of a belt buckle during a crash test, could be a dangerous occurrence if it occurred out in the real world?
  In the case of the A/N and D/N (NOTE: the A/N is the Dodge Dakota and the D/N is the Dodge Durango), it was definitely something that we did not want it to happen.
  
  
• You didn't want it to happen because it could be dangerous; right?
  In the A/N and D/N, yes, it could.
  
  
• Yeah. Well, it's dangerous in any car if the belt buckle comes unlatched during a wreck, does -- isn't it?
  Yes.