Side/rear Glass problems of the 2006 Ford Explorer

Was driving when tilt gate glass ajar warning came on, at the same time heard a whistling noise. Upon stopping noticed the lift gate was ajar with and away from the hatch by several inches. Tied to close it and it did not close properly upon inspection the hinge was broke that holds the glass to the vehicle. Managed to get the glass somewhat back in place and drove gingerly home all while the lift gate ajar light was on. There is a lot of white residue packed in part of the hinge not known if it is road salt or not and the hinge has a crack where it separated. My concern is the failure is related to salt and freezing and thawing, and if that is the case how long before the other one fails. . . Also if driving at highway speeds with windows opened could it have caused the glass to shatter scaring the driver of other traffic causing an accident. I have contacted Ford about it in case they wanted to see it and got the normal basic reply car is out of warranty and basically we don't' care at this time.

1. The events leading up to the failure are simple. It was a quiet Saturday afternoon (4:30 pm on 7/18/09). I was on a two way street on the way to my sweetheart's house in overland park, KS . I was going at about 25 mph. There was one other car in my vision about 75 feet behind me. No one was coming at me. To my right was an empty baseball diamond for the local high school and to my left was a large ( at least 10 feet tall) concrete wall enclosing an upscale housing development. 2. Without warning I hear an explosion followed immediately by shattering glass from my sunroof cascading down upon me. The explosion was just the sound of the sunroof shattering. As god is my witness, I swear tt just shattered from causes beyond my knowledge. 3. The following Monday morning I took it to the Ford dealership where I had purchased it and replaced the sunroof. My bumper-to-bumper warranty was still in force but Ford motor refused to hone up on this one. The service manager said that Ford doesn't know but what it was shot out accidentally broken out or if someone had put their fist through it. The strange thing was the sunroof glass that was still in the sunroof frame was angling upward as if it had been struck from inside. The service manager pointed this out to me. The local dealership did split the cost of replacement with me though.