Where Owners Report Fires, Crashes, and Injuries
Failure patterns carrying the most owner-alleged fires, crashes, injuries, and deaths in NHTSA complaints. These are UNVERIFIED consumer reports — allegations filed with NHTSA, not adjudicated incidents.
Owners alleged 10,672 fires and 1,049 deaths across 13,539 failure patterns in the federal complaint record. These are unverified consumer allegations, ranked here to show where the most severe outcomes are reported.
| year | make | model | component | alleged deaths | alleged fires | alleged injuries | source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2,006 | Honda | Pilot | airbags | 99 | 1 | 111 | view › |
| 2,006 | Honda | Ridgeline | equipment | 99 | 0 | 0 | view › |
| 2,010 | Ford | Explorer | cruise-control | 50 | 0 | 10 | view › |
| 2,010 | Honda | Civic | steering | 45 | 0 | 1 | view › |
| 2,011 | Lincoln | MKS | engine | 40 | 1 | 38 | view › |
| 2,006 | Chevrolet | Trailblazer | fuel-system | 11 | 6 | 0 | view › |
| 2,013 | Lincoln | MKS | engine | 10 | 1 | 1 | view › |
| 2,009 | Cadillac | Escalade | electrical | 10 | 0 | 1 | view › |
| 2,017 | Toyota | Avalon | engine | 10 | 0 | 0 | view › |
| 2,006 | Chrysler | Pacifica | visibility | 10 | 0 | 0 | view › |
| 2,020 | Kia | Soul | electrical | 8 | 0 | 0 | view › |
| 2,005 | Chevrolet | Cobalt | steering | 6 | 7 | 34 | view › |
| 2,008 | Chevrolet | Cobalt | steering | 6 | 4 | 23 | view › |
| 2,005 | Toyota | Camry | cruise-control | 5 | 0 | 56 | view › |
| 2,008 | Toyota | Prius | airbags | 5 | 0 | 29 | view › |
| 2,008 | Chevrolet | Cobalt | airbags | 5 | 0 | 47 | view › |
| 2,008 | Pontiac | G5 | steering | 5 | 0 | 9 | view › |
| 2,006 | Chevrolet | HHR | electrical | 4 | 2 | 6 | view › |
| 2,005 | Jeep | Liberty | suspension | 4 | 1 | 8 | view › |
| 2,013 | Lincoln | MKS | electrical | 4 | 1 | 1 | view › |
| 2,005 | Dodge | Ram 1500 | airbags | 4 | 0 | 39 | view › |
| 2,016 | RAM | 1500 | airbags | 4 | 0 | 40 | view › |
| 2,015 | RAM | 1500 | airbags | 4 | 0 | 27 | view › |
| 2,014 | Tesla | Model S | steering | 4 | 0 | 1 | view › |
| 2,014 | Tesla | Model S | airbags | 4 | 0 | 1 | view › |
Showing the top 25 of 13,539 harm-flagged failure patterns. The full dataset is free to download and republish with attribution:
Methodology
Each row is a (vehicle, component-category) cluster carrying ≥1 complaint flagged by NHTSA for crash, fire, injury, or death. Counts are sums of those NHTSA flags across the cluster’s complaints. NHTSA complaints are submitted by consumers and are not verified by NHTSA or ProblemsByVin; treat as allegations.
Source: US NHTSA owner complaints + recalls (public record), MY 2005–2025. License: CC BY 4.0 —
cite as ProblemsByVin (https://problemsbyvin.com). Computed from the database snapshot dated 2026-05-31.
Reporters: we'll pull a custom cut of this — by make, model year, state, or component — and our reliability analyst can speak to methodology on the record. Get in touch ›