The Associated Press
PHOENIX (AP) - As a study is underway to determine the safety of Ford Crown Victoria police cruisers that have been linked with fiery crashes, Maricopa County has ordered 56 more of the sedans.
“We have a shortage of automobiles, we’re hurting,” Sheriff Joe Arpaio said. “All our deputies don’t even have cars. We don’t have time to wait.”
Three Arizona officers have died and another was severely burned during high-speed, rear-end collisions in Crown Victoria Police Interceptors, a sedan with heavy-duty features designed for police work.
A task force named by Arizona Attorney General Janet Napolitano and Ford Motor Co. Vice President Susan Cischke is studying the car’s safety and role it played in the fiery deaths of 12 officers nationwide.
The panel plans to meet next week to develop police procedures and recommendations on the fuel tank, which has been linked to fatal fires, The Arizona Republic reported Thursday.
The Board of Supervisors approved the $1.69 million purchase Wednesday, adding to the sheriff’s fleet of about 200 Crown Victorias.
Phoenix attorney Pat McGroder, who represented some of the victims and families in settlements against Ford, said, “I suppose that any agency that moves forward and purchases these vehicles does so at their own risk.”
“Maybe Joe Arpaio knows something the rest of the country doesn’t know.”
In the wake of Chandler Officer Robert Nielsen’s death in a fiery June 12 collision, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office had put the purchase on hold. Mesa police are buying the cars, but only for use with compressed natural gas.
Most large Phoenix-area police agencies have no plans to buy the cars until the problem is addressed. Some departments, including Chandler and Phoenix, are retrofitting their cars with fuel tank bladders that are supposed to withstand rear-end collisions of up to 200 mph, but two bladders installed by the state Department of Public Safety have leaked. Each bladder costs about $2,500.