Minivan recall grows as victim's family speaks out

2010-12-15 16:08:00 PST Whitman, MA 02382, United States — (12-15) 16:08 PST Whitman, Mass. (AP) --

Sean Bowman was driving with a classmate to community college when his Ford Windstar's rear axle cracked in half, sending the minivan careening into a building and killing him, his family says.

One week later, the family says, a safety recall notice from Ford arrived in the mail. It said the 2001 Windstar's axle should be checked out because it could corrode and break.

Now Bowman's relatives — and some safety experts — are accusing Ford of failing to give the recall the urgency it deserved.

Bowman's widow, Justine Bowman, called it a "stealth" recall.

"This is not your average, everyday recall. This is your rear axle can break, you can lose control of your vehicle, your wheels can fall off," she told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Ford Motor Co. declined to comment on Bowman's case or why the family says it got its notice more than six weeks after the automaker announced the recall in August. But Ford said the recall was no secret. The announcement was carried by the AP and other organizations at the time.

"Ford is committed to safety and notifying customers of recall," said spokesman Wes Sherwood. "We send individualized letters to customers with affected vehicles and go beyond government requirements for recall notifications."

Automakers are required by federal law to notify owners by mail "within a reasonable amount of time," according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. And owners typically are notified within 30 days. Industry officials say notifications take time because automakers rely primarily on states' motor vehicle records to determine who owns the vehicles.

Representatives of NHTSA and the U.S. Transportation Department did not immediately comment Wednesday night on how Ford handled the recall.

In the meantime, Ford appears to be having trouble keeping up with the size of the recall. Some repair parts are unavailable, and one Windstar owner told the AP her car has been sitting at a dealership awaiting repair for four months.

Ford announced on Aug. 27 that it was recalling 575,000 older-model Windstars in the U.S. and Canada. The recall covered vehicles from model years 1998 to 2003 that were sold in states where the heavy use of road salt can cause more corrosion, including New England, the mid-Atlantic and the Great Lakes region.