# 2026 SUBARU OUTBACK — SEATS
> NHTSA complaint `2244114` · 2026-09-07 · Subaru of America, Inc.
## Severity
- **Deaths:** 0
- **Injured:** 3
- **Fire:** No
- **Crash:** No
- **Police report:** No
- **Medical attention:** Yes
- **Vehicle towed:** No
## Vehicle
- **Make:** SUBARU
- **Model:** OUTBACK
- **Year:** 2026
- **Manufacturer:** Subaru of America, Inc.
- **Component:** SEATS
- **Speed:** 35 mph
## Narrative
Incident Summary: On August 23, 2026, a multi-occupant injury event occurred during routine city braking due to an inherent occupant packaging design defect in the vehicle’s front seating and sun visor layout. The vehicle exhibits a static seat-to-visor clearance of 79 cm versus a standard median adult sitting height of 95 cm, result of negative 16cm headroom clearance.   During normal city deceleration (0.2g–0.4g), seatbelt inertia reels remain unlatched under FMVSS 209 tolerances, allowing normal forward upper-torso pitch. This causes adult occupants' foreheads to strike the lower edge of the stowed sun visor, resulting in head impacts, neck strain, and concussion symptoms.  A service representative at Capitol Subaru personally observed the hazard during intake. Subaru Quality Assurance inspected the vehicle but closed the file by relate it to quality issue as claiming no "part manufacturing defects" exist, while ignoring the negative physical clearance envelope as saftey issue.   Subaru's recommended workaround—sliding the seat back and make seat lean backward—does not eliminate visor contact during forward torso pitch and severely compromises rear-cabin legroom, causing physical leg entrapment and impact injuries to rear passengers during this same deceleration event. On the driver side, sliding rearward prevents safe operational reach to the brake and accelerator pedals, even with these saftey issue highlighted to Subaru, they keep insist to slide seat back to clear the 
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*Source: [NHTSA ODI](https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/downloads/) · MORVS · CC0 1.0*