Mid/rear Seats Assembly problems of the 2002 Chrysler Town & Country

The mid row passenger side seat flipped forward while occupied. As a result, the occupant smashed his head on the back of another seat.

I own a 2002 Chrysler Town & Country lxi Mini van. The problem I have noticed is with the passenger seats (second row). They are buckets (not bench) and can swivel forward to allow access to the third row. In order to place the seat back into position after a person has entered or exited the vehicle, you must slam the seat back into the floor. If this is not done however, the seat appears to go back into place. If you are not experienced with this, the seat does not lock back into the floor. Approximately one and a half years ago, my mother entered the back seat and then pulled the second row seat back, to where she thought it was in place. My 2 year old daughter was then placed into the car seat in that second row seat. We drove away in the parking lot but at the first stop with brakes that seat slammed forward, crushing my daughter's face into the hard plastic seat in front of her. There is also a sort of hard plastic handle on that front seat that is right at cheek level. My daughter fortunately came away with a bruised cheek and black eye, but I felt very lucky that she did not fracture any of her facial bones. We have been very careful since, but just 2 weeks ago, this happened again, this time with my two year old son. Again, someone who did not realize how hard you must slam the seat down to get it to lock into place got into the back seat. Again, at the first stop, my son slammed forward in his car seat, crushing his face into the front seat. He too came away with a black eye and again we felt fortunate that there was no other injury. I simply wanted to report this hazard, hoping that Chrysler will think about the design of these seats. The seats should not be able to appear in normal position without being locked.

2002 Chrysler town and country is supposed to be equipped with the latch system in "all rear seating positions". This system (including the tethers) are not present on the 3-passenger seat in this vehicle. The same is true for most of the 2003 town and country vans in the lot of my car dealer.