By C. Ron Allen, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Hundreds of Ford police cruisers in South Florida have been modified to keep them from exploding into a fireball when they’re hit from behind at high speed, but even that new equipment isn’t enough to avoid an explosion if a car is hit at highway speed, according to Ford Motor Co.
The Crown Victoria, the standard for police cars nationwide, passes the rear-end, collision test at 50 mph, a Ford spokeswoman said. But traffic on Interstate 95 often moves at 70 to 80 mph or faster. The federal government requires the cars be safe in 30 mph collisions.
“No car in the world is tested at those speeds,” said Kristen Kinley, a spokeswoman for Ford. “That type of test does not exists. The requirement is 30 mph.”
Some local police and city officials say they are not overly concerned about the potential problems because they involve rear-end crashes at relatively high speeds. They reason that local officers spend little time on Interstate 95 and have little chance to be in that kind of crash.
Others disagree.
“We have, thank God, not had any experience with exploding gas tanks,” said Jim Crowning, fleet manager for the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. But a drunken driver can rear-end a patrol car on a city street as well as on the interstate, he said.
The danger of these collisions was highlighted by two rear-end crashes on Interstate 95 in Miami in which patrol cars erupted in flames. The crashes involving a Ford Crown Victoria and a Chevy Caprice left one trooper dead and another severely burned.
Trooper Robert Smith, the father of 4-year-old twins, was killed on July 26, 1997, when a drunken driver rammed his patrol car from behind as it was parked on I-95 near Northwest 95th Street. Smith, 34, who had been on the force four years, was trapped inside the burning car.
Nine months later, April 7, 1998, a speeding, drunken driver slammed into trooper Marissa Sanders’ car near Northwest 119th Street and threw her to the side of the highway. Her cruiser’s gas tank exploded and showered her with gasoline. Sanders suffered serious burns.
Nationwide, at least nine other police officers have died in fiery rear-impact collisions in Crown Victorias. At least 27 civilians have died in similar crashes involving Crown Victorias, and in Mercury Grand Marquis and Lincoln Town Cars, similar models.
Law enforcement officials in several agencies in Broward and Palm Beach counties did not hesitate to have Kevlar shields installed around the gas tanks of their Crown Victorias when Ford made the recommendation. The shield is intended to reduce the chance of having a tank erupt and cause an explosion.
“Nobody wants to have their police officer rear-ended and have it erupt,” Boynton Beach Police Chief Marshall Gage said. “The likelihood was that the individuals using these vehicles on the interstate were more likely of being rear-ended than local police officers. Nevertheless, you don’t want to run the risk.”
Miramar police and the Broward Sheriff’s Office took the same precautionary steps.
“We were thinking safety,” Miramar police spokesman Bill Robertson said. “We would rather err on the side of caution. If Ford was recommending to have these shields put in place, we would be lax in not doing it.”
Ford announced in September that it would install the five-piece shield -- valued at $105 each -- on about 350,000 Crown Victoria police cars. Kinley said few police agencies actually requested the modification kit needed for the work.
The automaker is fighting several wrongful-death and class-action lawsuits filed by individuals, local governments and police entities nationwide stemming from fuel-fed fires in Crown Victorias. At issue is the vehicle’s fuel tank, which is behind the rear axle, making it vulnerable to puncture in high-speed impacts.
Ford executives testified this year in a New York state Senate hearing and in a Dallas courtroom that in collision tests, the fuel tank leaked 40 ounces of liquid around a valve because of pressure from the impact. Federal standards limit fuel leaks to 1 ounce.
Still, Ford officials say they have no further plans to address this danger, Kinley said.
Mechanics at a Ford dealership in Delray Beach spent six to eight hours working on each of Boca Raton’s 160 cruisers, officials said. Some cars were taken in three times after Ford learned that some dealerships were cutting corners in doing the work, said city spokesman Neil Evangelista.
“We were sending 15 or 20 a week up there to get corrected,” Evangelista said. “We’re doing every thing that we can, within the limits, to get them back within standards.”
The Florida Highway Patrol is near completion of upgrading its cruisers to protect against fuel-tank explosions.
“My guess is that we’re not 100 percent [there yet] but probably more than 90 percent,” Capt. Ken Spears said.
The Highway Patrol last week began installing a Kevlar-type toolbox in its cruisers’ trunks to confine various police tools that could puncture fuel tanks. Two truckloads of the boxes were being shipped to South Florida for installation in cruisers here, Lt. John Bagnardi said.