The contact owns a 2015 Toyota Highlander. The contact stated that the rear power hatchback door made an abnormal noise when being opened. In addition, the door only opened halfway. The vehicle was taken to nalley Toyota of roswell (11130 alpharetta hwy, roswell, ga 30076, (404) 994-5422) where the contact was informed that the vehicle was not covered under warranty. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 30,800.

- Cumming, GA, USA

This Highlander has a power liftgate. If a child or adult gets in the way of the liftgate when it is lowering, the child or adult can be seriously injured, crushed or killed because the liftgate has no easy reversing feature. It does reverse when it hits an object but the force required to make it reverse is too great and will hurt or kill a human who gets in the way. People often reach in the trunk to fetch something after the operator decides to close the trunk. If this happens with the power closer, the operator must know the exact location of the stop control either by feel or by sight to stop the operation of the liftgate in order to prevent injury. This is asking too much of the operator. The lift gate should be designed to reverse or stop immediately just like the safety features on automatic garage door closers. This is a serious safety defect and needs to be addressed immediately before some gets hurt or killed. I have already pointed this out to Toyota and the file number is #[xxx]. information redacted pursuant to the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).

- Kent, WA, USA