Ford Minivans Recalled in Virginia

by admin@gotechark.com | May 18th, 2012

May 18, 2012

Ford Motor Co. has just tacked an additional 27,000 Windstar minivans onto a larger recall issued in August 2010. These vans are all sold or registered in Virginia, and are being recalled because the rear axles can crack and fail, reports Wavy.com.

Virginia Windstar owners will begin receiving letters about the recall in mid-June. It is up to the Windstar owners to take the vans in for repair, as—without warning—a completely fractured rear axle can lead to a loss of vehicle control.

Two summers ago, Ford recalled 600,000 Windstars in the U.S. and Canada that had been manufactured between 1998 and 2003. The company initially reported that vans were only being recalled from states where salt is used to de-ice roads because the salt erodes the axles.

But from October 2011 to March 2012, 11 people reported cracked axles in Virginia, though no crashes or injuries have been reported in the state. There were, however, eight crashes and three injuries in other states related to the Windstar’s axle problems. No one’s death has been linked definitively to the defective axles, but one Massachusetts man died in a crash that involved a Windstar with a fractured axle.

When a defective product causes harm, it doesn’t just affect the victim. It affects family members when victims can’t return to work, losing wages and financial support, and can emotionally and mentally cripple a household. This is where the knowledgeable Norfolk Defective Product Lawyers at Lowell Stanley can help.