By Dennis Persica, The Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
A lawsuit against Ford Motor Co. claiming the police car it makes is unsafe will go on despite an offer by Ford to try to fix the problem, attorneys for the police agencies suing the company said this week.
Nationwide, 12 officers have been killed in Crown Victoria fires, prompting law enforcement agencies to claim the cars are unsafe. Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee, Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff Charles Foti and Gretna Police Chief B.H. Miller are among the Louisiana law enforcement chiefs suing Ford.
Lee, Miller and the Terrebonne Parish government sued in 24th Judicial District Court in Gretna. The suit claims the design of the Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor makes it susceptible to gasoline leaks in rear-end collisions, leading to fatal gasoline-fed fires.
Foti sued Ford in federal court, but he has since dropped that suit and joined Lee’s and Miller’s suit, said his attorney, Lambert Hassinger Jr. Since then, about 30 law enforcement agencies across the state have joined the suit, said New Orleans attorney Glenn McGovern, who filed the original suit by Lee and Miller.
Late last month, Ford offered to retrofit the estimated 350,000 Police Interceptors in service with a kit the company says should provide added protection against vehicle fires. Ford said the kit will shield the fuel tank from parts of the undercarriage that could pierce the tank in a collision. The tank is mounted between the rear axle and the bumper, and critics say that in a crash the tank is likely to be cut open.
“The gas tank in the location it’s in gets crushed in an accident,” McGovern said.
The company also is offering a way for police officers to carry equipment in the trunks more safely. Ford said that in some high-speed accidents, sharp or heavy objects in the trunk had been “rammed forward through the trunk wall and into the back seat, potentially damaging the fuel tank and injuring rear-seat occupants.”
Ford also will offer a printed pattern to show police officers where equipment can be safely stored in the trunk.
Ford’s offer was announced Sept. 27 at a news conference in Arizona, where three law enforcement officers have been killed in Crown Victoria fires since 1998. Ford’s upgrade kit was the result of three months of study by a panel made up of members appointed by Ford and Arizona Attorney General Janet Napolitano.
Ford’s retrofit is free to the police agencies. Parts should be available later this month, and retrofitting all the cars in use should take about four months, Ford spokeswoman Sara Tatchio said.
McGovern said Ford’s retrofit offer is “a piecemeal response.”
“The shields won’t work,” he said.
McGovern said a more effective approach would be to install fuel-tank “bladders” such as those used in some aircraft and race-car fuel tanks that prevent leaks in the event of gas-tank punctures.
Tatchio said bladders haven’t been proved to be effective in preventing leaks and that there are other issues surrounding their use, such as the effect a bladder may have on a car’s performance.
Tatchio said there also are questions about the durability of the bladders. In racing and aviation uses, the vehicles are subject to constant inspection, usually after each race or flight, she said.
“That’s not how everyday driving goes for people in the real world,” she said.
The 12 officers killed in Police Interceptor crashes include Louisiana State Trooper Hung Le of Marrero in 1998. The 29-year-old’s Interceptor burst into flames after it was rear-ended on Interstate 55 near Manchac. Le died about six weeks after the accident at a Houston burn center.
Represented by McGovern, Le’s family sued Ford. The suit has been settled out of court, Tatchio said.
Ironically, Ford’s offer to adapt the cars was followed a week later by a report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration saying the Police Interceptors are safe.
The federal agency started the probe of Crown Victorias last year after numerous law enforcement agencies complained that the vehicles are dangerous. The traffic safety agency found that the risk of fire in a Police Interceptor is comparable to that of the Chevrolet Caprice police vehicle produced by General Motors. GM stopped producing police versions of the Caprice after the 1996 model year.
The Police Interceptor is popular among police departments despite the bad publicity.
Tatchio said the car is “extremely safe.”
“There are a lot of police officers who believe in this vehicle,” she said.