2016 FORD TRANSIT — Complaint #1934762
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC:FOUNDATION COMPONENTS:HOSES, LINES/PIPING, AND FITTINGS filed October 11, 2023
NHTSA complaint #1934762 (ODI reference 11549353) concerns a 2016 FORD TRANSIT and was filed on October 11, 2023. The owner reports the failure occurred on August 13, 2023. The report was geocoded to Minnesota based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as service brakes, hydraulic:foundation components:hoses, lines/piping, and fittings, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: yes, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 1. A complaint that flags a crash, fire, or fatality is escalated on NHTSA's internal review queue and factors more heavily into any Preliminary Evaluation decision on this make and model. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same FORD TRANSIT cohort independently describe similar service brakes, hydraulic:foundation components:hoses, lines/piping, and fittings failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2016 FORD TRANSIT shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The involved individual was found with altered mental status on a highway on 8/13/2023. The vehicle he had been driving was found in the highway median a few hundred feet away. He was admitted to a local hospital, diagnosed with blunt force injuries of the head, and pronounced brain dead on 8/14/2023. Autopsy examination revealed fractures of the skull, subdural and subarachnoid hemorrhage, and cerebral cortical contusions. Mechanical vehicle inspection revealed that the driveshaft flexible joint failed while the vehicle was in motion, with resulting driveshaft uncoupling and severe damage to surrounding vehicle components including the brake and fuel lines. Investigation was consistent with the decedent exiting the moving motor vehicle.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1934762 |
| ODI Number | 11549353 |
| Date Filed | October 11, 2023 |
| Failure Date | August 13, 2023 |
| VIN | 1FBZX2YM7GK |
Similar SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC:FOUNDATION COMPONENTS:HOSES, LINES/PIPING, AND FITTINGS Complaints for 2016 FORD TRANSIT
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.