Ford Cruise Control Deactivation Switch Fires

August 26, 2005

Jeffrey W. Runge, M.D.
Administrator
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
400 Seventh Street, SW
Washington, D.C. 20590 

Dear Administrator Runge:

A little girl dies; attention turns to a faulty Ford part

More than 500 fires reported in pickups, SUVs; probe centers on cruise-control switch.

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Iowa farmer: Ford ignited deadly blaze; company denies blame

WESTGATE, Iowa (CNN) — Earl Mohlis says he has no doubt the fire that burned down his house last month, killing his wife of 34 years, started under the hood of his 1996 Ford F-150 pickup truck — and he is suing the company, he says, to prevent more deaths.

Ford Motor Company has concluded the truck did not cause the fire.

KISSIMMEE, Florida (CNN) — Early this year, Laura Hernandez nudged her husband, Nestor Oyola, as he slept in their Kissimmee home and asked him to put the Ford Expedition he had bought her the day before into the garage.

She did not want to risk leaving it on the street, where it might be vandalized.

"That was my dream, to have a Ford Expedition," she recalled to CNN about the $22,000 Eddie Bauer 2001 model SUV — green with gold trim and leather seats.

Oyola moved the Expedition and they went to sleep.