About 90,000 Toyota Highlanders are being recalled due to defective safety seat belts. The defect involves the improper operation of the seat belt which can cause rear facing child safety seats to malfunction.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) stated that the recall affects Highlander and Highlander hybrid sport utility vehicles manufactured in 2008. The NHTSA discovered the defect during standard testing. Testing showed that seat belts could not fasten properly when rear-facing child safety seats were used.

The defect may cause the child car seat to not be properly secured, allowing it to move during an auto accident.

Toyota Highlander vehicle owners will be notified by mail at the beginning of June.

Toyota has previously recalled vehicles due to defective safety seats. In 2002, a man was killed when his safety seat belt jammed after an accident, preventing him from being able to flee the vehicle when it caught fire. The man was in a Toyota Corolla. A civil trial began last year in California in order to determine if Toyota is liable for the death.

If a vehicle defect is the result of negligence, the vehicle manufacture can be held responsible for the serious injuries that may result from the defect. Car wreck attorneys are working on cases in which serious injury or fatality has resulted due to auto defects caused by negligence.