Two-year-old Lucia Ayala died on March 7 as she, her mother and an older sibling were sitting inside the family’s parked Hyundai Palisade as their father shopped inside a store in Akron, Ohio. According to Akron police, the little girl was pinned by a 3rd row seat of the SUV when it closed on her, trapping her between the seat back and the seat. The girl’s mother can be heard frantically trying to free her as witnesses called 911 for help.
The medical examiner ruled the cause of her death: “child compressed by power folding seat in a parked SUV.”
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The tragedy triggered a recall by Hyundai of more than 68,000 of its 2026 Palisade SUVs equipped with “Limited” and “Calligraphy” trim packages and of its 2026 hybrid electric vehicles in the United States and Canada.
The News4JAX I-TEAM has uncovered several complaints were made about the Palisade’s seats months before Lucia died.
California mother, Ashley Groussman, told the I-TEAM that the same day she drove off the lot with her new 2026 Palisade in August 2025, her daughter started screaming when the second row seat folded down on top of the 9-year-old.
Groussman managed to pull her out but says she made multiple phone calls, sent emails, and texts alerting the dealership, writing “urgent safety concern,” “cannot be delayed,” this was “extremely dangerous,” and “my daughter was at risk of being crushed.”
Then on November 1, 2025, a Tennessee mother reported a close call to the dealership involving her child sitting in the second row, which she later reported to NHTSA, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
On November 4, 2025, Hyundai opened a formal investigation.
Nine days later, in Ohio, a customer complained to NHTSA that a “person can be crushed…potentially pinning them in place or choking their neck” by a 2nd row seat that would not stop folding in a new Palisade.
Another report filed by a Washington state vehicle owner indicates a powered seat squished a person between the 2nd row seat and the door frame, describing it as “very painful.” When the SUV was tested at the dealership, the complainant told NHTSA even if someone tried to prevent the seat from closing “using excessive force” it will not stop, adding this is a safety concern for any passengers on the 2nd and 3rd rows, especially children.
Then in Oregon in December, a passenger reported being hurt after she was “pinned between the seat and the back of the front seat.” Also in mid-December, Hyundai officials in the U-S learned of two prior incidents in South Korea involving 3rd row seats, according to documents from NHTSA.
Hyundai reported that it began benchmark testing in January.
Six days after the March 7 death of 2-year-old Ayala in Ohio, Mandarin resident Ashlyn Elsner received an email from Hyundai warning her that the 2nd and 3rd row power seats in her new Palisade had an increased risk of serious injury or death to occupants.
“I have an 8-year-old and a 3-year-old, and they both ride in the second row,” she said.
She immediately stopped driving them in the SUV. The I-TEAM contacted Hyundai, asking why it did not issue a recall initially, given the timeline of previous reports. A spokesperson responded:
“Hyundai continuously reviews vehicle performance information from multiple sources, including customer and dealer feedback, field reports, and date from global markets. The first reports related to second-and third-row power seat operation were received between August and October 2025, and based on the information available at that time, those reports did not indicate the presence of a safety defect. A formal investigation was opened in November 2025 and included additional engineering analysis, benchmarking, and testing. When we received a report of a fatality on March 9, 2026, the investigation was immediately escalated, and we acted decisively.”
When we asked about complaints with the Palisade in South Korea, the spokesperson reported power seat operations were “assessed on severity, frequency and real-world context. Based on the information available prior to March 2026, those reports did not indicate a confirmed safety defect that warranted a recall.”
The I-TEAM also asked Hyundai what happened between the Ohio fatality on March 9 and the issuance of the recall on March 17. A spokesperson responded:
“Hyundai was made aware of the incident on March 9. We briefed NHTSA on March 11, halted sales of the affected vehicles on March 12 and submitted the official recall notification to NHTSA on March 17. The early reports were investigated promptly and assessed carefully. The emergence of a fatality report in March prompted immediate escalation and action, and we did not hesitate. A recall decision was made within three days of receiving that report.”
Recalls can be expensive and companies can base recalls on regulatory standards and independent testing, in addition to consumer complaints.
“They can be tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars,” Keith Barry, senior auto editor with Consumer Reports said. “You need to have a pattern sometimes to figure out what went wrong and the hope is that you can establish these things before there is a tragedy before something terrible takes place. I’m sure that NHTSA and I’m sure that Hyundai are going to look into the process that did or didn’t take place here. It’s rare that a recall will happen in response to a tragedy versus trying to prevent that tragedy.”
Barry also added that if any driver has a safety concern about their vehicle they should notify the dealer, report it to the automaker, and contact NHTSA, since it regulates automakers. He says you should contact all three not just one.
The News4JAX I-TEAM asked NHTSA about its recall process, and whether the agency can force a recall based on reports of potential dangers, prior to an automaker initiating a recall. NHTSA officials told us that the agency has the authority to make a determination that a vehicle contains a safety-related defect, based on its review and assessment of testing, inspection, investigation, research, and other information and data. Federal rules then require several additional steps, including a response from the manufacturer and public comment, before potentially issuing a formal order to remedy the defect.
However, the lengthy administrative process to order a recall is rarely invoked, because NHTSA either influences the initiation of a recall through its work with a manufacturer, or learns that the information is insufficient to support a safety defect determination. For more on NHTSA’s risk-based investigations and recalls process, please see this brochure.
NHTSA encourages owners to contact the agency with any safety-related concerns via its website or by calling the Vehicle Safety Hotline at 888-327-4236, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time.
Hyundai says the problem with its 2nd and 3rd row seats can be fixed with a software update, which is now available through an active BlueLink subscription or it can be installed at a Hyundai dealership.