NHTSA Complaint #11423383 — 2015 CHEVROLET EQUINOX

I was driving back from Albany to Troy NY on 787 in a steady light rain when the rain roared to full torrential downpour. I put my wipers from the regular steady setting up to high, and they instantly both went all the way to the left and turned off in the upright position. They would not respond again. Middle lane, 65 mph, thunderstorm, and I can’t see anything out my windshield and cars are flying beside me on both sides. I rolled my window down but couldn’t see around my hood to the road and steer at the same time. I couldn’t get to the right lane to pull over because of the traffic and even if I could it was dangerous to be on a narrow shoulder at that point in this rainstorm. I put my flashers on, slowed to 40 and stayed in the middle lane as best I could based on the white lane markers as I still had zero visibility out my windshield. One I was past the last of the on ramps for that section I could pull over to the right lane at least and I got off at the next exit. Once I was on a city street to pull over, there was still so much traffic I had to wait until I could get out and put my wipers at least in the down position. They did not feel broken or slack at all. I waited a while for the rain to let up, but it would soon be dark, so I decided to slowly drive the rest of the way. it took me a half hour to drive the length of Troy on side streets slow enough so I had some measure of visibility in the still downpour. I cannot believe the wipers stopped working at the high speed setting on a highway in the middle of a storm. I could have crashed my car easily. What if my children had been with me? A failure like this is unacceptable and incredibly dangerous. It is a holiday weekend. I will call the dealership tomorrow in hopes they are open to speak to them about this.