Toyota orders recall of RAV4 SUVs over potential seat belt issue

Toyota Motor Corp said on Thursday it is conducting a global recall of 2.87 million vehicles due to the possibility that their seatbelts could be damaged by a metal seat frame part in the event of a crash.

In an email, the world's biggest-selling automaker said that the global recall involved its RAV4 SUV model produced between July 2005 and August 2014 and sold worldwide, and its Vanguard SUV model produced between October 2005 and January 2016 and sold in Japan.

The recall includes 1.3 million vehicles in North America announced earlier in the day by Toyota's U.S. unit, along with around 625,000 vehicles in Europe, 434,000 vehicles in China, 177,000 in Japan and 307,000 in other regions.

With respect to Canada, the recall affects just under 149,000 RAV4's manufactured between 2006 and 2012.

The automaker said it would add resin covers to the metal seat cushion frames on all affected vehicles to prevent any metal pieces from cutting the seatbelt in the event of a crash, after it had received two reports in which rear seatbelts separated following crashes.

Toyota said it could not determine whether these incidents were linked to any injuries or fatalities.