Ford agrees to police car safety probe

DETROIT, June 25 Reuters is reporting that Ford Motor Co. agreed on Tuesday to work with Arizona's top law enforcement official to investigate safety issues and the possible cause of gas tank fires in its popular Crown Victoria police cruisers.

The agreement was announced by Arizona Attorney General Janet Napolitano, who earlier this year urged Ford to recall several model years of Crown Victoria sedans, the vehicle of choice in most U.S. police departments, to fortify their fuel tanks with extra protection.

At least 11 police officers across the United States, including three in Arizona, have died in fires after high-speed collisions involving their Crown Victorias over the past 10 years.

Napolitano said a task force comprised of Ford engineers and outside experts would conduct extensive tests on the Crown Victoria cruisers, known as Police Interceptors, and provide results to a blue-ribbon commission appointed jointly by Ford and her office within 90 days.

"They will have a very broad charter," Napolitano said of the commission members, adding that some members would be active-duty police officers. Their task will include looking at the current design of the Crown Victoria and recommending changes to make it a safer vehicle, she said.

"I think this sets us on a path, a concrete path, to look and see what can be done to make these cars safer and to minimize if not totally eliminate the risk that another officer will be caught in a deadly fire," Napolitano told a news conference.

She did not elaborate. But fuel tanks on the Crown Victoria are located behind the rear axle and Napolitano noted, in a letter to Ford in March, that this made the vehicles similar in design to the Ford Pinto, the infamous 1970s-era car linked to numerous deaths in rear-end collisions.

FEDERAL SAFETY PROBE

Federal safety regulators have opened a preliminary investigation into all Crown Victorias, Mercury Grand Marquis and Lincoln Town Cars built between 1992 and 2001, since they share the same design and may be fire-prone.

But Ford safety chief Sue Cischke -- who will oversee the commission with Napolitano -- said its focus, at least initially, would be strictly on Police Interceptors, some 400,000 of which are currently in use.

"This is a very rare occurrence. It happens at extremely high speeds and there is nothing unusual about this particular vehicle," said Cischke, who vigorously defended the Crown Victoria's safety record.

"What's unusual is the circumstances the police have to operate in," she said.

Napolitano said she did not reiterate her earlier demand for a potentially costly vehicle recall by Ford at Tuesday's meeting.

But the New Jersey city of New Brunswick filed a suit seeking class-action status against Ford and the Crown Victoria in May, alleging that the company had known for decades that the fuel-tank placement could lead to fires.

Clarence Ditlow, head of the Center for Auto Safety, a Washington-based industry watchdog, said he expects Ford will ultimately be forced to recall more than 2 million 1992-2001 Crown Victorias, Grand Marquis and Town Cars still on U.S. roads.

"Today's decision just delays the inevitable. There will be a recall," Ditlow told Reuters.

"We just hope another police officer isn't burned to death in the meantime," he said.