Chrysler is recalling 299,718 model year 2008 Chrysler Grand Voyager, Chrysler Town and Country, and Dodge Grand Caravan vehicles manufactured from June 24, 2007 through July 30, 2008. These vehicles may experience a heating and air conditioner (HVAC) condensate leak from the HVAC drain grommet onto the Occupant Restraint Control (ORC) module, which can lead to the illumination of the airbag warning light and a potential inadvertent airbag deployment without warning. An inadvertent airbag deployment could result in injury to the seat occupant in front of the deploying airbag and/or a vehicle crash. The safety recall is expected to begin during August 2011. This air bag safety defect recall has been assigned NHTSA recall number 11V-394.  Chrysler has assigned recall number L01 to this recall.

Our client was the driver of a Dodge Grand Caravan, one of the Chrysler minivans; other related minivans are the Dodge Caravan, Plymouth Voyager / Grand Voyager and Chrysler Town & Country.  Although he was involved in a severe frontal accident, his driver air bag failed to deploy and his seat belt unlatched during the accident, causing him to suffer fatal injuries.  The passenger air bag did deploy, even though there was no passenger.  This combination is one of the typical symptoms of a clockspring defect. 

Our investigation revealed that the clockspring, located under the driver air bag and steering wheel, was defective.  Although it was included as part of a safety recall, Chrysler never sent the recall  notice to our client.  In fact, Chrysler has previously sent out as many as ten recall notices, but in this case sent out only one.  This means that if the vehicle was ever sold, or the owner moved, after that sole recall notice went out, the notice may never have reached the current owner.

Chrysler admitted that this same defect may have existed in about a million-and-a-half Chrysler minivans (Dodge Caravan, Dodge Grand Caravan, Plymouth Voyager, Plymouth Grand Voyager, and Chrysler Town & Country) from the 1996 to the 1998 model years.  We also discovered that clockspring defects affected numerous other Chrysler models, including those from more recent model years.