Toyota recalled nearly three million RAV4 sport utility vehicles worldwide on Thursday, saying their rear seatbelts could be severed in a crash, leaving passengers unprotected.<br />The fault is suspected in the separation of seatbelts in two crashes, one of which killed a passenger.<br />Although the recall affects only a single model, it follows a disturbing series of discoveries over the last year of flaws in crucial auto safety equipment.<br />Most notable were tens of millions of faulty airbags, some of which led to fatal accidents.<br />Toyota said that it could not confirm whether the seatbelt failure had caused the fatality, which occurred in a crash in Canada, but that it was recalling the vehicles as a precaution.
