A Ford 2003 van, with 30,000 miles experiences a steering failure, when the pitman arm broke off the bottom of the steering box. It cleanly sheared off a shaft of metal which is 1 1/4 inches of solid steel. Since the driver was operating at low speed on the ramp of miami international airport, he struck a barrier with minimal sheetmetal damage. The driver reported that the steering wheel was spinning freely in his hands at the time of impact. I reported this to Ford, who's staff determined that the shaft did not fail due to manufacturing defect. Had this vehicle been at highway speed on a major roadway, the cause of the accident would not have been so clearly obvious. And surely a fatality would have been involved. I retained the broken part. I believe this is an incident which should be reported. Ford determined that striking the barrier caused the metal to fail. However the impact was minimal and though a centered impact on the front of the vehicle the airbag did not even deploy.

- Miami, FL, USA