NHTSA Complaint #11489730 — 2003 HONDA ELEMENT

The car was being driven at a low speed across a school parking lot when there was a loud bang, the car dropped in the back and stopped movong. The rear trailing arm came apart from the body causing it to be inoperable. If I the car wasn't in a school zone and traveling at a high rate of speed this could have been a very serious accident. If there was a vehicle behind they would have rear ended the honda. If this happens on going down a hill it would have rolled over. If this happened on a busy highway it would have caused a multi car accident. Honda is aware of this issue in Canada but has done nothing to address it here in the United States. The vehicle is available for inspection for now. I can't have a vehicle sitting in my driveway that's inoperable due to city codes. The safety of the driver, passengers, pedestrians walking and other vehicles on the road are in danger. This is a very top heavy vehicle that could easily flip and roll over causing seriously injury even death. I had the vehicle towed from where it broke, the tow truck driver is a mechanic who looked at it. He said what broke. I had another mechanic stop and look because he is a welder and said it can't be repaired at this point. There were no warning lights or signs of this happening. Unless you live in Canada where they sent owners a recall in the mail as long as they live in areas that have high salt usage on their roads.......not sure why that just pertains to Canada because, Michigan, New York, Vermont, new hampshire, Maine all get bad winters where salt is used. A vehicle should not disintegrate and fall apart like the hondas are. They are a danger on the road right now. This is the recall for this exact same problem in Canada https://wwwapps.tc.gc.ca/Saf-Sec-Sur/7/VRDB-BDRV/search-recherche/detail.aspx?lang=eng&mk=1954!4785!35936!42257!39379&mkName=HONDA&md=ELEMENT&fy=2003&ty=2003&ft=&ls=0&sy=0&syName=All%20Systems&all=0&rn=2021024&cf=SearchResult&pg=0