NHTSA Complaint #11488318 — 2012 CHRYSLER TOWN AND COUNTRY

The driver-side rear sliding door lock actuator has failed to operate any longer and because of this part failure, the driver-side sliding door will not unlock or open. The safety of my family is being put at risk because should we be in an accident on the passenger side of the car, for example and "t-bone" or a roll-over that does not allow us to use the passenger side doors, everyone in the back (we have a 7-person family, 5 children in the back) will not be able to exit the minivan without climbing over the driver seat or climbing over the rear seat. And assuming the accident is severe enough to not allow us to exit on the passenger side of the car, I believe it is also safe to assume that injuries will have occurred and the children and/or adults will be unable to climb over or around seats and could be at great risk of injury trying to get out of the car by themselves or by emergency support since no access will be available for them to get safety support boards into the car or for them to get into the car and to the children safely. This problem has been confirmed by a local body shop since the door will not open or close they had to completely remove the door to get into the panel to inspect. I have not had the vehicle inspected by the manufacturer, police, insurance representative but it has been inspected by my mechanic and auto body shop. There were no warning lamps or messages warning of this problem or part breakage. It was a situation where we left the house and used both sliding doors and while we were out, the driver side sliding door stopped working. This appears to be a very common problem with chrysler/dodge/jeep/ram products and has been going on for years. There are numerous videos on youtube showing people talking about this problem and recalls have been issued for other model vehicles and need to be put in place for my vehicle as well.