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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