On September 30, 2014, my wife was on her way to Columbus, Ohio in her 2008 Ford F350 Super Duty Turbo Diesel Truck (VIN# 1FTWW31R68EA85755) with 44,000 miles. She’s pulling her 2014 26’ Lakota two horse trailer with living quarters with her show horse ($30,000) in the back. The unexpected happen while she was on MD-51N near Cumberland, Maryland heading across a bridge with heavy traffic at 1230PM.

The check engine light came on followed by a “PULL OVER SAFELY” message. Twenty seconds (20 SECONDS) later, the truck completely shut down. Wife was traveling at 70 miles an hour when the truck shut down, which turned the power steering off. This is what I call unsafe for anyone, especially when pulling a 26’ horse trailer with an extra 1000lbs in the back with a horse. She was not able to get completely off the road because it shutdown on the bridge blocking the right lane which almost caused a major accident due to the vehicle shutting down on her. While waiting on the bridge, her trainer had to turn around his eighteen wheeler so my wife could unload her horse and load it in his trailer. This completely shutdown the traffic on MD-51N which is not safe unloading and loading a horse.

After sitting on the side of the road waiting for AAA to come tow the vehicle for over 1 ½ hours, the vehicle started back up and she drove it to Ford Cumberland, 10335 Mt Savage Road NW, Cumberland, MD with the check engine light still on with a police escort since the Sheriff of Cumberland sat with my wife on MD-51N waiting on AAA. This is after she was almost hit by a FEDEX eighteen wheeler due to not being able to get to a safe location for a truck and horse trailer due to the vehicle shutting down on her. The dealership found the problem: Exhaust Sensor. They were able to repair it and she was able to continue on with her trip. How can this sensor go out on a truck with only 44,000 miles on it? How can they design a truck to shut down automatically without any warning? The dealership told my wife they have seen these sensors go out at 20,000 miles before.

Ford needs to address this problem and fix it immediately as this is a safety issue. Ford needs to address this immediately and issue a recall before someone dies on the highway due to this known problem.

Please look into this matter and hold Ford accountable for their actions. No vehicle should be able to shut down when traveling at a high rate of speed.

Look forward to hearing back from you on if I have a case. We have the POC for the Sheriff Office and Dealership.

Thanks,

Greg Taylor