Re.: premature failure of 2017 Toyota rav-4 SE hybrid 4-wd aluminum wheel. On Sunday, October 7th, 2018, while driving eastbound on highway 70 at around 10:25 a.M., the left rear wheel failed unexpectedly on my wife's 2018 Toyota rav-4 SE hybrid. I was traveling with my wife, my 13-year old daughter, and my 9-year old son when we were startled by a loud boom, which sounded like a gun shot. At first, I thought I had ran over something, but quickly ruled that out because within seconds I could feel the vehicle's rear end making loud noises and vibrated strongly. I knew then that I had a flat tire. We were going about 65mph and traveling East on the far left hand of a 4-lane highway. When I arrived at the buddhist temple, I took the damaged tire out to inspect it. I was trying to see what had caused the tire to go flat. But as I was inspecting the tire I then noticed the fractured area in the middle of the aluminum wheel. As you can see from my pictures, the inner and outer aluminum wheel beads has no sign of damage. In addition, I could not detect any puncture hole in and around the rubber tire that could have resulted in the metal fractures. I want to alert you to the potential aluminum wheel defect that may exist in my other three factory supplied wheels, as well as other rav-4 that have the same SE wheels manufactured in Japan. I hope that NHTSA will review the evidence I have provided and begin a formal investigation into this dangerous wheel defect. I will keep the damaged wheel and will not allow Toyota or bommarito to take possession of my damaged aluminum wheel until I have received further instruction from your office. (see attached pdf for additional vehicle info)

- Kirkwood, MO, USA