Apache mod_jk memory leak?

We are running an Apache 2.0.54 , mod_jk 1.2.10 and Tomcat 5.5.17 on a
Windows 2003 server box, average web traffic to Tomcat is about 10 to
20 concurrent HTTP sessions (idle session timeout 15 minutes). After a
weekend of sudden heavy web traffic with up to 150 simultaneous HTTP
sessions we experienced 2 server crashes within 24 hours.


Even though our Tomcat only ever used 20% of its assigned maximum 512MB
JRE Memory and never crashed, mod_jk produced loads of error messages
along the lines:

<<<
[Sun Jan 14 21:25:37 2007] [info] jk_handler::mod_jk.c (1975):
Service
error=0 for worker=ajp13
[Sun Jan 14 21:25:40 2007] [error]
ajp_connection_tcp_send_message::jk_ajp_common.c (918): sendfull
returned -54 with errno=54
[Sun Jan 14 21:25:40 2007] [info] ajp_send_request::jk_ajp_common.c
(1220): Error sending request on a fresh connection
[Sun Jan 14 21:25:40 2007] [info] ajp_service::jk_ajp_common.c (1724):

Sending request to tomcat failed, recoverable operation attempt=1
[Sun Jan 14 21:25:40 2007] [error]
ajp_connection_tcp_send_message::jk_ajp_common.c (918): sendfull
returned -54 with errno=54
[Sun Jan 14 21:25:40 2007] [info] ajp_send_request::jk_ajp_common.c
(1220): Error sending request on a fresh connection
[Sun Jan 14 21:25:40 2007] [info] ajp_service::jk_ajp_common.c (1724):

Sending request to tomcat failed, recoverable operation attempt=2
[Sun Jan 14 21:25:40 2007] [error]
ajp_connection_tcp_send_message::jk_ajp_common.c (918): sendfull
returned -54 with errno=54
[Sun Jan 14 21:25:40 2007] [info] ajp_send_request::jk_ajp_common.c
(1220): Error sending request on a fresh connection
[Sun Jan 14 21:25:40 2007] [info] ajp_service::jk_ajp_common.c (1724):

Sending request to tomcat failed, recoverable operation attempt=3
[Sun Jan 14 21:25:40 2007] [error] ajp_service::jk_ajp_common.c (1733):

Error connecting to tomcat. Tomcat is probably not started or is
listening on the wrong port. worker=ajp13 failed
>>>

I also noticed that one of the 2 Apache.exe processes went up in memory
usage from 12MB to a 160MB before Apache failed to serve any requests,
even though both Apche and Tomcat still continued to log incoming
requests.
It seems that mod_jk doesn't release the memory for unused
TCP-connection sockets involving port 8009 (the one for the ajp13
protocol). Not even a restart of the Apache and Tomcat5 NT services
cleared up the pipe, they still refused to serve requests. So I finally
ended up rebooting the whole Windows 2003 server box.

Is there a memory leak problem with Apache 2 / mod_jk ? Any help
appreciated! How can I configure the system to cope with heavier
traffic and, if necessary, tell the user that the system is too busy
and to come back later?

In case it's of any importance, here is the relevant workers.properties
for the ajp13 we are using:

<<<
# Set properties for worker1 (ajp13)
worker.ajp13.type=ajp13
worker.ajp13.host=localhost
worker.ajp13.port=8009
>>>