'ABC World News' Plans Report on Ford Windstar Recall

December 21, 2010, 2:21 pm

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

Christopher Jensen, a Wheels blog contributor who often writes about recalls and safety issues, is to appear Tuesday night on “ABC World News With Diane Sawyer” in a segment about axle failures on Ford Windstar minivans. The report is expected to be broadcast again Wednesday morning on “Good Morning America.”

On May 5, Mr. Jensen reported in Wheels that although some 200 owners of 1999-2003 Ford Windstar minivans had filed complaints about broken rear axles, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration never opened a safety investigation. Nine days later, the safety agency did begin an inquiry, saying it had received 234 complaints and reports of two accidents. The axle failures were linked to corrosion damage primarily in snow belt states where roads are salted in winter.

In late August, Ford issued a recall of 612,000 Windstar vans from the 1998-2003 model years in the United States and Canada, and in November the safety agency issued an unusual warning to Windstar owners: get rusty rear axles fixed quickly before they break.

Last week, a spokeswoman for the agency, Karen Aldana, said the warning was prompted in part by the death of a Massachusetts man, Sean Bowman, who was 28. His wife, Justine, said experts she hired told her that the failure of the rear axle on their 2001 Windstar caused the crash. Ms. Aldana said Ford had not acted quickly enough to notify owners; the recall notice to Mr. Bowman was postmarked three days after he died.

Investigators for the agency inspected the Bowmans’ vehicle and then decided to issue the warning.

Ford had originally denied there was any danger involved should a rear axle break.

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New York Has Worst Traffic in North America, Report Says

4:56 p.m. | Updated

This Thanksgiving weekend, more than 40 million people will drive more than 50 miles from their homes, according to AAA. That’s bad news for New Yorkers, according to Navteq, a map and traffic provider, which recently released its list of most congested cities in North America. Not only did New York City top the list, but it also ranked No. 1 for the worst rush-hour roads, with the northbound lanes of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel coming in first, followed by the eastbound George Washington Bridge.

The city in second with the worst rush hours is Washington, which apparently experiences more than one kind of gridlock, followed by San Francisco and then Seattle. Los Angelenos may be surprised to find their city ranked only No. 5 on the slowest rush-hour list.

The list was compiled based on data collected by Navteq that included live traffic reports (so-called probe data) from cellphones and portable navigation devices, as well as historical data for the year, according to Mike Finn, the company’s vice president for North American traffic. Navteq also collects traffic information from about 45 municipal government agencies, from its Traffic.com division’s road monitoring systems, commercial fleet operators and 26 company offices around the country that track incident reports.

“For live traffic, there’s been enormous growth in GPS-enabled smartphones,” Mr. Finn said, adding that these devices are helping to increase the accuracy of live traffic information.

Such additional data may also have helped give Canadians drivers their due. Montreal’s eastbound Autoroute 15 ranked third among North American’s slowest highways. Montreal also took the fifth spot with a stretch of Route 138. Not to be left out, Toronto, whose residents have complained for years to this reporter about traffic problems there, managed to just make in to the No. 10 spot of slowest rush-hour roadways with the dreaded Don Valley Parkway (northbound).

“I’ve had the thrill of being on it in the rain, and I’m not surprised to see it on the list,” Mr. Finn said.

The Navteq list compares with a report last year from Inrix, a traffic information provider, that ranked Los Angeles the most congested city, followed by New York. Although the 2009 Inrix report used some similar sources of data, it still ranked a number of New York City roads in the top 10 for the worst traffic.

Worst Rush Hours in the United States

1. New York City
2. Washington
3. San Francisco
4. Seattle
5. Los Angeles
6. Philadelphia
7. Chicago
8. Dallas-Fort Worth
9. Atlanta
10. Houston

Freeways With the Slowest Typical Rush Hour

1. New York City – Brooklyn Battery Tunnel (northbound)
2. New York City – George Washington Bridge (eastbound)
3. Montreal – Autoroute 15 (eastbound)
4. Philadelphia – U.S. 202 (southbound)
5. Montreal – Route 138 (westbound)
6. New York City – George Washington Bridge (westbound)
7. Los Angeles – I-10 (eastbound)
8. Boston – U.S. 1 (northbound)
9. Dallas – Texas State Highway Spur 366 (eastbound)
10. Toronto – Don Valley Parkway (northbound)

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