Volvo is recalling 9,667 of its 2010 XC60s, most of them in the United States and Canada because in a crash test the driver’s seat belt came undone.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety conducted a side-impact test on the XC60 on Oct. 8 as part of routine testing of vehicles for its Top Safety Pick awards, which will be announced on Wednesday. During that test, the driver’s seat belt in the XC60 detached from the point to the left of the driver’s hip at which the belt is anchored to the vehicle.

In the institute’s tests a barrier strikes the driver’s side at 31 miles an hour. The barrier represents the front end of an S.U.V. or pickup truck.

Volvo said the problem was caused by ribs inside the housing that cover the anchoring point. The belt was not cut, but the impact caused the ribs to put pressure against the permanent mount and the seat belt popped loose.

James Hope, a Volvo spokesman, said there were no reports that this had happened before and it never happened in any of the about 50 side-impact tests conducted at the Volvo Safety Center in Gothenberg, Sweden.

Another Volvo spokesman, Dan Johnston, added: “In our labs we do EuroNCAP, I.I.H.S., N.H.T.S.A. and our own and this never happened. This never showed up in the tests we did.”

Mr. Hope said Volvo was conducting a voluntary recall “despite the fact that this is one car in one test.”

He added that Volvo reported this verbally to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Friday and had just sent a formal letter to the agency. He said notification to dealers began on Friday as well. Volvo will begin to notify owners in two to three weeks, once it gets the necessary vehicle registration data.

The company said repairs involve modifying the housing of the seat-belt attachment and should take about 30 minutes. Under recalls, repairs are made at no charge to the owner.

[Source: NY Times]

Another Volvo · Automobile · Canada · Crash test · Insurance Institute for Highway Safety · Seat belt · United States · Volvo Safety Center