On Nov 2nd, my 5 year old daughter inserted her finger into the buckle of the seat belt next to her. Her finger became lodged into the opening and would not come out. She was hysterical and became ill in the back seat. We tried unsuccessfully to remove her finger. It was too swollen. We had to contact the Chicago fire department. They had to cut the seat belt out of the car. They were going to have to cut the buckle of her finger, when a ingenious fireman decided to wrap her finger with dental floss. After about 15 minutes he was able to remove her finger from the buckle. I am disappointed that Honda engineers have designed a seat belt with such a small opening in which a child's finger could become stuck. I have noticed on some other vehicles that this hole is much larger. Granted, this is something that a child should not do, but at the age of 5 they do not know any better. We sincerely believe this should be redesigned so as to avoid the experience that we had with this. **** dims 11 IVOQ entry posted after 12/12/02 cut-over to artemis*****769326.

- Chicago, IL, USA

My wife was braking to come to a stop at the preston-legacy lights. It was not a hard emergency brake, but a quicker stop due to traffic ahead. Our 4 yr old was riding in the front facing car seat in the rear seat (second row) properly anchored with the lap and shoulder 3 point belt as well as his carseat harnesses. However, when my wife braked, the seat belt became unlatched and the car seat fell behind the driver side seat with my son still anchored. The seat belt fully retracted at that time. As a result of the fall, my son received two deep lacerations behind his lower lip from his teeth. The doctor advised watching him for 24hrs for signs of head injury. We were incredibly lucky that he escaped without serious injury. I shudder to think what may have happened in a accident situation and the am unsure about the security of the other belts in this 1 month old van. My wife is sure about the belt being latched correctly since she drives to work without the child in the seat. Any braking or turns would have toppled the seat during her commute since it is quite lightweight. We called the Honda motor company but they are not available on the weekend. I will be taking the van to the nearest Honda dealer for an inspection too. Please let me know if you need further information.

- Plano, TX, USA