PRESS CONFERENCE
WASHINGTON, DC -- SEPT 7, 2002

Ford’s Crown Victoria:
Police Car Inferno

Tucson, AZ, December 9, 1998 – Officer Juan Cruz of the Arizona Department of Public Safety is parked on the shoulder of Interstate 10 near Tucson, completing an accident report in the driver’s seat of his Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor (CVPI), when a Nissan Altima veers from the roadway and smashes into his cruiser.  The patrol car’s rear frame buckles, its fuel tank ruptures, gasoline gushes out and within seconds the patrol car erupts into an inferno.  Cruz, who survives the crash, perishes in the fire.

Madison County, FL, July 26, 1999 – Deputy Sheriff Steven Michael Agner slowly follows a road construction crew, flagging motorists to the other lane.  A pickup truck driver distracted by her cellular phone conversation doesn’t notice and crashes into the rear of Deputy Agner’s patrol car, a 1999 Crown Victoria, at an estimated 70 miles per hour.  The cruiser’s fuel tank is ripped open and the car is engulfed in flame.  Agner, trapped inside, burns to death.  That same day, the Florida Highway Patrol meets to discuss the results of its investigation into just such rear-end fuel-fed fires in police vehicles.

Taylor, TX, January 30, 2000 – Police Cpl. Alan Neel is trapped inside his Crown Victoria when it is rear-ended at 84 miles per hour by a drunk driver.  The crash jams both front doors shut.  Neel manages to kick his way free and runs from the car as it explodes in fire. "If anything had delayed me at all, I wouldn't be here today," Neel says later.

Tempe, AZ, February 18, 2000 – Officer Floyd J. "Skip" Fink, Jr. has stopped a motorist for a traffic violation and has not yet climbed out of his Crown Victoria patrol car when a Honda Prelude veers from the road and crashes into it.  The fuel tank is punctured and the cruiser is engulfed in fire. By the time bystanders can free him, the state patrolman is badly burned, parts of his clothing melted to his body.  He dies on the way to the hospital.

Hyde Park, MA, January 28, 2001 – State Trooper Gerald Shea answers a 911 call to help Juan Rivera, an honors student from Puerto Rico with dreams of being a border patrolman.  Rivera’s car had skidded into a snow bank on State Rte. 24 near Hyde Park, Massachusetts.  Shea invites the graduate student to sit in his Crown Victoria's rear seat to stay warm until help arrives.  He is standing outside the patrol car chatting with Rivera when a drunk driver in a Toyota 4 Runner rear-ends the cruiser at an estimated 57 miles per hour.  Shea is hit by the out-of-control Toyota and hurled 20 feet away.  The Crown Victoria's fuel tank ruptures car explodes into flame.  Unconscious, Rivera is dragged to safety by bystanders, but not before he is severely burned and his border patrol dreams put on hold indefinitely. 

'In Harm’s Way'

Ford corporate representative Brian Geraghty has admitted under oath that the Crown Victoria’s record is among the worst when it comes to protecting police and their passengers from being incinerated.  He was asked during his deposition:

Question: “Now, one of the things that is really, really clear is that if you look at the percentage – if you look at the rate of fatalities in rear-end fire collisions, the Crown Vic is among the worst; isn't that true?”

Answer: “The data would show that, yes.”

Nationwide, at least 12 police officers have been burned to death and nine others seriously injured in Ford police cars that have erupted into infernos after rear-end collisions. Analysis shows the officers would have survived except for the fires.  The first such 

Crown Victoria fatality occurred in 1983.  Seven have occurred in the past five years.

At least 26 civilian deaths and six injuries have also been linked to fuel-fed fires in Crown Victorias and other models of Ford’s "Panther" line – Mercury Grand Marquis and Lincoln Town Car.

Police cars are much more likely than civilian-use cars to be rear-ended in high-speed crashes, as police are on the road longer and frequently stop on roadsides to assist motorists, issue citations or respond to traffic collisions. They are literally more often “in harm’s way.”  That harm is multiplied many times over when rear-end collisions turn their patrol cars into firebombs.Ford has about 85 percent of the police cruiser market, with an estimated 400,000 Crown Victoria police cruisers in use.

Fact: Ford’s own documents reveal that the rate of rear-end collision fire deaths in its "Panther" line police cruisers is 140 percent higher than for the competitive General Motors line and about double the rate for Ford’s own smaller Escort line.

Fighting Back

Since 1999, law enforcement agencies that have tried to get Ford to make its patrol cars safer include the Florida and Arizona Departments of Public Safety, North Carolina Highway Patrol, and the cities of Phoenix and Tempe, Arizona.

When yet another Arizona policeman, Robert Nielsen of the Phoenix suburb of Chandler, AZ, was burned to death in a Crown Victoria cruiser on June 12, 2002, Arizona officials banned future purchases of Ford police cruisers and joined national consumer advocates and others in demanding that Ford recall all CVPIs (see below).

Meanwhile in Texas, Nueces County (Corpus Christi) officials filed a class action suit against Ford on behalf of all Texas counties and cities demanding that the auto maker make immediate safety modifications to the state’s 25,000 CVPI cruisers.

David Perry, the Corpus Christi attorney handling the lawsuit, explains why:

"The tendency of the auto industry is to keep settling lawsuits until it gets too expensive, and then do something to correct a defect.  Hopefully, this class action will speed things up and we'll get some action before anyone else is killed or maimed for life.  The officers who protect and serve us deserve our support in return.  Ford is providing law enforcement with dangerously outdated technology with a continuing history of fuel-fed fire deaths.  It is time to put an end to this tory of continuing tragedy."

What’s the Problem?

The Crown Victoria police cruiser’s fuel tank is flawed in two critical ways:  (1) it is located in the crush zone behind the rear axle, where it is most likely to be rammed into the axle, suspension system or other components and ruptured in a crash; and (2) it lacks protective shielding.

Ford advertises that its police cruisers are specially built for the unique conditions required by law enforcement.  In reality, Ford uses a standard civilian fuel tank design in its police cruisers, the same design it uses in its civilian Crown Victorias and other “Panther” models.

That fuel system is based on technology from the 1960s.  The Crown Victoria has not been redesigned since 1979, making it the only new car on the road whose design is that old.  As early as 1968 a University of California at Los Angeles study concluded that fuel tanks should not be located behind the rear axle.  Later research showed that the tank should be forward of the axle.  Ford ignored the findings:  its Crown Victoria is the only car on the market certified for “police pursuit” that has its fuel tank located behind the rear axle.

In fact, the only major cars that still have this "exploding gas tank" design are Ford Mustang and Ford’s "Panther" models – Crown Victoria, Mercury Grand Marquis and Lincoln Town Car.  When it comes to fuel tank design, all are built the same as the police cruiser CVPI.  Although the police cruiser is at greater risk for fire-producing high-speed rear-end impacts, it has no increased protection over those sold for civilian use.

Fuel tank location and integrity is the same problem that Ford experienced  with its notorious Pinto compact a quarter century ago.

Fact: More persons have been killed in fires in Ford Crown Victorias than in Ford Pintos before those fire-prone compact cars were recalled.

The Solutions

• The Crown Victoria police cruisers should be redesigned to locate the fuel tank forward of the rear axle, away from the crush zone.
• Short of redesign, fuel tanks should be retro-fitted with shields that protect them in crashes from impacts with sharp objects that can cause puncture, or be replaced by tanks with “second skin” bladders that prevent fuel leakage even if the tank is punctured.
• Sharp objects near the fuel tank should be eliminated or replaced by smooth-surfaced substitutes – specifically including shock towers, stabilizer bar brackets and parking brake fixtures, all implicated in rupturing fuel tanks in deadly fiery real world crashes.

When Did Ford Learn of the Problem?

Ford has been aware of the problem at least since mid-1999, when the Florida Highway Patrol presented the auto maker with the results of its year-long investigation into deaths and injuries in Crown Victoria patrol cars. By then, however, it’s likely Ford already knew of the problem:  seven officers had already been killed. 

Not only has Ford clung to its 1979 design for the Crown Victoria and other “Panther” models, it has never run rear-end crash tests on the vehicles at speeds above 50 miles per hour and never crash-tested, either on the ground or in computer simulations, a fully equipped CVPI at any speed, let alone above 50 miles per hour.

The Ford-Quality Non-Response

The solution is not unknown to Ford.  Consider:

• The auto maker places the fuel tank in front of the axle, away from the crush zone, on its Taurus model, but not the Crown Victoria.
• Ford equips its production-line Mustang with fuel tank shields, so the auto maker “clearly has the expertise and experience to develop a shield for the CVPI tank,”as Arizona Attorney General Janet Napolitano wrote in a letter to Ford CEO William Clay Ford Jr. on March 4, 2002.  “…Ford has simply chosen not to do so, but this does not make a shield unfeasible, as Ford represented.”
• Under questioning, Ford also insisted to Arizona authorities that the CVPI had never been equipped with fuel tank shields, but it was subsequently discovered that Ford had put a partial shield on either side of the CVPI’s fuel tank in 1996 and 1997 to protect it from puncture by the rear frame rails.
• A bladder-equipped fuel tank, a “second skin” similar to a swimming pool lining to keep fuel from escaping if the tank is ruptured, is a common feature in vehicles used for racing. The technology is readily available and costs about $1,800 to install. Ford told Arizona officials that such bladders were unreliable and lacked durability, yet it equips its Mustang Cobra R, a high performance racing car, with just such a bladder-lined fuel tank.
• Ford showed Arizona authorities a May 2000 video of a Taurus crashing into a CVPI at 50 miles per hour to demonstrate that it passed the test.  “What we have now learned,” wrote Atty. Gen. Napolitano to Ford, “is that Ford modified the stabilizer bar bracket before the car was tested.  This modification was not disclosed to the state.  Ford’s failure to make full and fair disclosure … about the conditions of the test does not inspire confidence in the way Ford has approached a problem which the State of Arizona regards as extremely serious.”
• In July 2001, less than a month after staff at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recommended that the agency investigate reports of deaths and injuries in police cruiser fires, Ford dispatched executives to the agency and “got NHTSA not to open" its investigation, according to an internal Ford memo found by attorneys.  After the memo became public, NHTSA altered course and opened its investigation in November 2001.
• In October 2001, Ford issued a Technical Service Bulletin (TSB) to dealers acknowledging the increased risk of high speed rear-end collisions for police cars.  The bulletin recommended that, on request, dealers replace a sharp-edged hexagonal bolt head on the axle and grind down the sharp edge of a stabilizer bar “U” bracket, two components blamed for puncturing fuel tanks in rear-end crashes.

Fact: Ford did not notify police agencies of the TSB, the need for modifications, or the availability of the service.  Ford also never tested the modifications for effectiveness.

“Study is not enough,” counters Perry, the Corpus Christi attorney handling the Texas lawsuit.  “We need a commitment to fix the problem... We believe Ford can no longer ignore the cries of the widows and children of police officers killed in survivable collisions, in which inadequately protected fuel tanks uptured and exploded."

Arizona’s ‘Act Now’ Response

Arizona decided not to wait on Ford’s studies or NHTSA’s investigation.  It has started correcting the Crown Victoria design defects on its own and is demanding reimbursement from Ford.

Arizona contacted Fuel Safe, the contractor that supplies Ford with bladder-lined fuel tanks for Mustang Cobra racing cars.  Fuel Safe is now producing fuel tanks with bladders for Arizona’s CVPI fleet.  Ford represented to Arizona authorities that this was not feasible, “yet Ford evidently did not ask its own supplier of a similar tank for another Ford vehicle,” wrote the Arizona Attorney General.

Arizona’s Department of Public Safety is also replacing the cruiser’s parking brake cable hex bolt with a smoother rivet and has redesigned the sharp-edged stabilizer bar bracket.

Nueces County, Texas, (Corpus Christi) is also taking correction of the problems into its own hands, replacing the parking brake bolt and grinding off the tab stabilizer bar bracket on its fleet of 110 cars. 

Next Steps

Perry recommends that all law enforcement agencies:

• Take their patrol cars to Ford dealerships and request the technical service bulletin modifications. Agencies should save receipts pending the outcome of the class action.
• To the extent possible, revise police procedures to avoid having vehicles stopped on or near high-speed roadways.
• Avoid using trunk space to carry objects such as jacks unless they are wrapped in strong, non-puncture producing cases.

Safety advocates are demanding that, if Ford fails to take the following corrective actions, the NHTSA order the auto maker to do so:

1.	Recall all Crown Victoria vehicles, both civilian and police.
2.	On all cars, grind off (or reimburse fleet management for grinding off) the sharp edge of the stabilizer bar’s U bracket.
3.	On pre-1998 models, replace the parking brake cable bolt with a crash-tested safety bolt.
4.	On post-1998 models, remove the risk of the shock towers’ puncturing the fuel tank.
5.	Design, engineer and make available a gas tank shield for all Crown Victorias, police and civilian.
6.	Design, engineer and make available a fuel tank with a bladder that can be retrofitted at Ford’s expense for all police and civilian cars upon request.
7.	Design, engineer and make available a trunk wall shield to protect the fuel tank from the trunk contents of police vehicles.
8.	Conduct crash tests at 50-75 mph to simulate real world events with police cruisers fully loaded with standard police equipment.

For more information, visit: http://www.crownvictoriasafetyalert.com.

(07/15/02)