We were in route to my nieces graduation on route 76 which is a 55 mph road. With absolutely no warning the front drive shaft at about 45 mph came apart from the transmission side and caused the front tires to lock up sending myself, my wife and my nephew careening off the road. We were very lucky, narrowly missing a pole. The truck itself was not damaged by the accident because we stayed on basically grass, but it scared us all. However the truck was damaged by the drive shaft severely, as it tore up everything in its path. The speedo cable, exhaust, and it punched a hole in the top of the transmission destroying it. I have the old drive shaft(what's left of it) and already purchased a new one not realizing at that point that the tranny was destroyed until I replaced it and took a closer look. This truck was purchased new by my mother in law and was passed down to us on our wedding day. I do know a few things about cars and this is one of them, this has to be some kind of design flaw. Drive shafts in my experience do not just blow apart with no warning and with no safety strap either. We all made it out of this ok, but I would so saddened if their were injuries to my family due to a 250 dollar poorly designed part.

- Belvidere , IL, USA