DETROIT– U.S. auto safety regulators are one step closer to recalling nearly a million Dodge Journey SUVs after a woman was trapped and killed when her vehicle caught fire in 2022.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has upgraded an investigation it started last year to a technical analysis and added 11 model years to the study.
The agency said in documents posted to its website Friday that it has now received 19 complaints from owners and the automaker that defective door locks and windows could prevent people from getting out of the small SUVs during an emergency. There have been no additional fires, injuries or deaths.
The investigation began with Journeys from the 2009 model year but has expanded to include models sold through 2020. According to agency documents, investigators will look into the cause of the fire “and its possible effect on the operation of the door locks.”
Stellantis, the maker of Dodge vehicles, said in a statement that the company is cooperating with the investigation and extends its condolences to the woman’s family.
NHTSA says it will also investigate other possible causes for possible door lock failures. The Journey’s owner’s manual says the doors can be unlocked manually by pulling up on a plunger on top of the door panel.
A complaint filed with the agency before the investigation began says the woman was pulling over to the side of the road when hazard lights started flashing, windshield wipers came on, the horn started honking, windows wouldn’t roll down and doors wouldn’t unlock. The complaint alleged a fire started in the engine and spread, trapping her.
“The driver was unable to exit the vehicle, resulting in her death,” the agency wrote in documents.
The agency’s documents do not say where the fire started, but the Wisconsin State Journal reported in 2023 that 73-year-old Mary Frahm was killed when her Journey caught fire near Madison on December 9, 2022.
Frahm had called her fiancé and told him she had pulled over to the side of the road after the Journey began having electrical problems. She later called back and said smoke was coming from the dashboard and she could smell something burning, the newspaper reported. She called 911, but by the time emergency responders arrived, the SUV was engulfed in flames, the newspaper reported.
In 2009, Chrysler LLC recalled about 17,000 Journeys because an unused electrical connector could corrode and short out, potentially causing a fire, NHTSA documents show.
Michael Brooks, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Auto Safety, said in 2023 that drivers should first pull up on the plunger to escape if their vehicle’s electrical system fails.
In addition, escape is difficult because many windows now have plastic laminated between two layers of glass and are difficult to break. He suggested keeping a metal tool in the car and familiarizing yourself with which windows are tempered glass and can be broken with the tool.
Laminated glass helps prevent people from being thrown from their cars in an accident, he said.
He said there needs to be a standard method of unlocking doors or somehow escaping from all cars.