DETROIT — U.S. auto safety regulators are a step closer to seeking a recall of nearly a million Dodge Journey SUVs after a woman was trapped and died when her vehicle caught fire in 2022.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration upgraded an investigation opened last year to an engineering analysis and added 11 model years to the probe.
The agency says in documents posted on its website Friday that it now has 19 complaints from owners and the automaker that inoperative door locks and windows can prevent people from getting out of the small SUVs during an emergency. There were no additional fires, injuries or deaths.
The probe started with Journeys from the 2009 model year, but has been expanded to include those sold through 2020. Agency documents say investigators will look at the cause of the fire “and its potential effect on the actuation of the door locks.”
Stellantis, which makes Dodge vehicles, said in a statement that the company is cooperating in the investigation and extends sympathy to the woman’s family.
NHTSA says it also will explore other possible causes for any door lock malfunctions. The Journey owner’s manual says the doors can be unlocked manually by pulling up a plunger on the top of the door trim panel.
A complaint filed with the agency before the investigation began says the woman pulled to the side of a road when warning lights started flashing, windshield wipers came on, the horn started honking, windows wouldn’t go down and the doors wouldn’t unlock. The complaint alleged that fire apparently started in the engine and spread, trapping her inside.
“The driver was unable to exit the vehicle, resulting in her death,” the agency wrote in documents.
Agency documents don’t say where the fire happened, but the Wisconsin State Journal reported in 2023 that 73-year-old Mary Frahm died when her Journey caught fire on Dec. 9, 2022, near Madison.
Frahm had called her fiance and told him she pulled to the side of the road after the Journey started having electrical problems. Later she called back and said smoke was coming from the dashboard and she could smell burning, the newspaper said. She called 911, but by the time first responders had arrived, flames had engulfed the SUV, the newspaper reported.
In 2009, Chrysler LLC recalled about 17,000 Journeys because an unused electrical connector could corrode and short circuit, potentially causing a fire, according to NHTSA documents.
Michael Brooks, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Auto Safety, said in 2023 that drivers should try to pull up the plunger first to escape if their vehicle’s electrical system malfunctions.
Beyond that, escape is difficult because many windows now have plastic laminated between two layers of glass and are difficult to shatter. He suggested keeping a metal tool in the car and becoming familiar with which windows are tempered glass and can be shattered with the tool.
Laminated glass, he said, helps to prevent people from being thrown from cars in a crash.
He said there’s a need to standardize a way to unlock doors or somehow escape from all cars.