2018 Honda Odyssey Seat belts Problems

While my child was riding in the second row drivers side captains chair of my 2018 Odyssey, she fell asleep and unknowingly moved the shoulder strap portion of the seat belt behind her head/ upper body. I was driving and could not see that the belt had been moved because she was seated behind me and was also covered by a blanket. After the vehicle was parked, she unbuckled the seat belt and attempted to exit the vehicle. As she got out, the seat belt retracted and tightened around her abdomen and torso, trapping her against her seat. The belt became extremely tight and we were unable to free her after 20 minutes of struggling to create slack and slide her out.The pressure from the belt cause visible injuries to her abdomen. Because we could not safely release her, we were forced to cut the seat belt. The damaged seat belt was inspected by a Honda dealership, which recommended replacement of the entire seat assembly, costing $3,000. Honda customer relations was also notified and provided us with a case number. I am submitting this report because a child was trapped by the seat belt during normal vehicle use, requiring the belt to be cut to safely free her.

NHTSA ID

11753597

Incident

Jul 10, 2026

On 4/30/26 my 10 year old son was sitting in the middle row behind the driver buckled in his seatbelt. The middle row, middle seatbelt (that comes down from ceiling) got wrapped around his neck and kept tightening. He yelled for help. I was driving and saw in my rearview mirror that my son was being pulled up by his neck from the seatbelt in the ceiling. I pulled into a shopping center immediately to try to help him. I could not reach down in between the seats to unhook it because the more I tried to release him, the more it would tighten. That seatbelt requires a tool to be pressed into the lock to release it and the more I tried to get to the seatbelt to unfasten it the more it was tightening and pulling my son up (he was literally starting to hang from the ceiling). I unhooked his seatbelt so he could push himself up to try to release some of the tension around his neck. I wound up running into a Michaels store screaming that I needed scissors because my son was hanging from a seatbelt. She gave me scissors and I went back out and cut the seatbelt to release my son from the seatbelt noose around his neck. He had red marks around his neck afterwards. I still have the cut seatbelt and the other half retracted into the ceiling. Research has confirmed that there have been other reports of issues with children having to be cut out of seatbelts due to the Automatic Locking Retractor (ALR) in Honda Odysseys, model years 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and my model 2018. I called Honda corporate on 6/8/26 and filed a complaint. I was told I would receive an email response. I have not received an email or any response. So I called Honda corporate again on 6/25/26 and was told someone would reach out to me, but they could not tell me anything over the phone at that time. I made an appointment at my Honda dealership to have the seatbelt replaced, but have been waiting on a response from Honda corporate before doing any repairs.

NHTSA ID

11746477

Incident

Apr 30, 2026

I was travelling on a two lane surface road with a speed of 45 mph, travelling at or below posted speed and just starting to slow to make a right hand turn when I encountered / wandered over the solid white line into a pothole at the edge of the road where there is no shoulder. Airbags on the passenger side including the sidecurtain and airbag inside the passenger seat deployed instantly. There was no collision and no deployment of the front passenger airbag or any other bags in the vehicle. There was an immediate call from Honda regarding the airbag deployment along with an automated notification to local police. Police in [XXX] responded and made a report and created a case number: #[XXX] I had a passenger in the front seat at the time who received a facial laceration, bruises to the right arm and hip. This is part of a known recall for this model and year of vehicle. Police and local dealership ( Casey Honda of XXX [XXX] ) have both confirmed visually that the airbags have deployed. No warnings, lights preceded the event. I just received the letter in the last few days regarding the recall. Honda has issued a case number for the incident: #[XXX]. I will be following up Honda for an inspection of other accident sensor and systems for safety which can be affected by the deployment. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

NHTSA ID

11741430

Incident

May 30, 2026

The third row seat belt latch constantly gets stuck when lowering the driver side seats down. It has bent over time and it finally broke in half. We constantly try to move it to be safe but as the driver side seats go down, they catch the passenger side seat and pull the seatbelt latch with it. It results in the latch part being crushed between the seats. It was still usable up until this weekend when it got caught again and broke the latch completely.

NHTSA ID

11521002

Incident

May 5, 2023

The driver's seat belt consistently came 'unbuckled'. There were times that I had to pull over to re-insert it into the base. On 14 DEC 2022, I took the van to Honda of Gainesville FL to have this evaluated and repaired. The seat belt was replaced that day for a total of $269.67 (a receipt is available upon request). Last week, I checked the recalls online and Honda is recalling its 2018 Odyssey vans for this same problem. When I called about this, I was told by both the local dealer's staff member and Honda's Recall staff member (888-234-2138) that our VIN was not included in the recall. This is the reason I am writing to you; I believe that our VIN should have been included for this recall and the seat belt replacement covered by Honda. I don't see how it could not be included. Also, we want to notify you of this situation should other Odyssey owners be affected.

NHTSA ID

11518905

Incident

Dec 9, 2022

The plastic seatbelt buckle in the third row cracked apart. No one damaged this buckle, the vehicle was not in a crash, it appears to be defective.

NHTSA ID

11431561

Incident

Jun 5, 2021

VEHICLE WAS STATIONARY. I WAS SITTING IN THE FRONT PASSENGER SEAT. I STARTED TO PUT ON MY SEAT BELT, BUT WHEN I PULLED ON THE BUCKLE, I FOUND THAT THE LOWER ANCHOR POINT OF THE SEAT BELT HAD COME COMPLETELY LOOSE FROM THE FRAME OF THE VEHICLE. NO WORK HAS BEEN DONE ON THAT SEAT BELT TO MY KNOWLEDGE, SO MY ASSUMPTION IS THAT IT CAME LOOSE ON ITS OWN. CLEARLY THIS IS A MAJOR SAFETY ISSUE AND COULD HAVE RESULTED IN A SEVERE INJURY OR DEATH IF I HAD BEEN IN AN ACCIDENT JUST BEFORE THIS BOLT CAME COMPLETELY LOOSE.

NHTSA ID

11387706

Incident

Dec 6, 2020

Mileage

45,000 mi

MY SON WAS IN HIS CAR SEAT IN SECOND ROW BEHIND DRIVER'S SEAT WHEN HE GRABBED THE SEATBELT OF THE MIDDLE SEAT THAT ATTACHES TO THE ROOF AND WRAPPED AROUND HIS NECK. HE STARTED COUGHING WHEN WE NOTICED THAT HE HAD WRAPPED THE SEATBELT AROUND HIS NECK WE STOOPED THE CAR AND I WENT BACK TO TAKE HIM OUT BUT THE SEATBELT WAS LOCKED AND THERE IS NO WAY TO UNLOCK THE SEATBELT SO WE HAD TO CUT THE SEATBELT IN ORDER TO TAKE HIM OUT OF IT. I TRIED TO COMPLAIN AT HONDA BUT THEY SAID NOTHING CAN BE DONE AS ITS THE DESIGN OF THE VEHICLE AND THEY CAN'T DO ANYTHING. BUT TO ME ITS REALLY VERY DANGEROUS WE WERE LUCKY WE SAW HIM BUT A CHILD CAN EASILY DIE BECAUSE ITS SO EASY FOR ANY CHILD TO GRAB THAT SEATBELT.I HAVE ATTACHED THE PIC WHERE IT SHOWS HOW THAT SEATBELT WORKS FIRST IT LOCKS INTO 1 AND THEN INTO THE 2 LATCH. THE 1 LATCH CANNOT BE UNLOCKED.

NHTSA ID

11053991

Incident

Nov 23, 2017

Mileage

2,000 mi

THIS VAN WAS SOLD TO ME NEW FROM A HONDA DEALER WITH AN ACTIVE RECALL.

NHTSA ID

11011737

Incident

Jun 24, 2017

Mileage

605 mi