Axle Shaft problems of the 2001 Dodge Ram 1500

Dodge 4x4 quad cab (2001), right front ball joint snapped. In the fall of 2003 I was in 4 wheel drive and turned to the left from a parked position when the boll joint snapped on the right front.

On 9/1/2003 at approximately 8:40 p. M. My son was driving our 2001 Dodge ram pick-up on us 23 south between omer, michigan and standish, michigan. I was in the passenger seat in the front and my husband was in the back seat. All of a sudden there was a loud screeching noise and we went into the oncoming lane of northbound traffic. My son kept saying he could not control the truck. He was able to get the truck back in the southbound lanes and the truck kept fishtailing. All of a sudden the truck took a very hard right and we went through the ditch with coattails into the farm field and rolled the truck. When we stopped moving and we were all out of the truck some people who stopped, we asked them what happened and they said all they saw was headlights flying in the air and it looked like we lost a tire. With the police there he asked my son if he had fallen asleep my son said no that all of a sudden he could not control the truck. The police then thought we had a flat tire but upon looking for the tire in the farm field it was discovered that the back drivers side wheel had broke at the axle right at the spindle. All lug nuts and brake pads were still intact inside of the wheel and it was not flat. Also where the axle broke off the wheel the metal was shining and crackling. None of us, luckily, were seriously injured scraps, bruises, and a lot of pulled muscles. None of us went to the hospital. We do felt lucky that it happened where it did since 10 more minutes up the road we would have been on I-75 south in holiday traffic and things I am sure would have been different. We do feel and with anyone we have talked with that this was a manufacturer defect of poor metal not being heat treated correctly.