Vehicle Fires
CROWN VICS: Safety concerns deserved better response from Ford
DETROIT FREE PRESS
Editorial – December 9, 2003
Ford Motor Co. did not do right by its customers in its initial response to deadly fires in Crown Victoria police cars. As reported in Monday and today's Free Press, Ford appears to have spent more energy trying to convince police agencies and government regulators that there was no problem with the cars than in addressing the genuine fears of police using them.
Rebuffed by Ford, cops look for car fixes alone
Mechanics work to stop officers' fiery deaths in Crown Victorias
DETROIT FREE PRESS
December 9, 2003
By Jennifer Dixon
Free Press Staff Writer
Last of two parts.
Mike Fuson was tired of waiting for help from Ford Motor Co. By the summer of 2001, two Arizona troopers were dead. A Phoenix cop was in the hospital, comatose and badly burned.
They all had one thing in common: Their Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor had caught fire when it was hit from behind.
AMONG THE UNHEARD STORIES: Death leaves a void in NASCAR family
New mom, sisters are trapped in a blazing Town Car limousineDETROIT FREE PRESSDecember 9, 2003By Jennifer DixonFree…
Officers Pick Crown Vic
DETROIT FREE PRESS
December 8, 2003
By Jennifer Dixon
Free Press Staff Writer
For law enforcement officers, the Ford Crown Victoria is the police car of choice. Eighty-five percent of cop cars on the road are the Crown Vic Police Interceptor, the heavy-duty, police version of the sedan.
Officers praise it as being rugged and responsive. With a V8 engine and rear-wheel drive, the Crown Vic handles well during pursuits, as they navigate harrowing turns or bounce between curb and street, police say.
Ford Stands By Its Car
DETROIT FREE PRESS
December 8, 2003
The Free Press met with Ford Motor Co. representatives Oct. 30to discuss the Crown Victoria Police Interceptor's safety record. Following are excerpts from comments made by Sue Cischke, vice president for environmental and safety engineering at Ford.
PEOPLE HAVE DIED in every vehicle out there. There's not a nameplate vehicle out there that people haven't died in, but does that make it an issue?
HERE'S A VEHICLE that's been out there from 1992 to 2003 — 350,000 of them, we believe, on the road.
Critics Say Fuel Tanks Periously Placed
DETROIT FREE PRESS
December 8, 2003
By Jennifer Dixon
Free Press Staff Writer
The Ford Crown Victoria, the Lincoln Town Car and the Mercury Grand Marquis are an old breed of big, traditional rear-wheel-drive sedans. All three vehicles get five stars from the federal government for holding up in front-end crashes, and at least four of five stars for side-impact crashes. The Grand Marquis and Crown Victoria also get top crash ratings from the well-respected Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which is funded by the insurance industry.
Reported deaths don’t add up
Analysis finds more fatal, fiery wrecks
DETROIT FREE PRESS
December 8, 2003
By Jennifer Dixon and Megan Christensen
Free Press Staff Writers
When federal regulators cleared the Ford Crown Victoria, Mercury Grand Marquis and Lincoln Town Car of any safety defects last fall, they blamed fiery rear-impact crashes for just 16 deaths in sedans built between 1992 and 2001. But the Free Press has found that about 30 people died in fiery rear-end crashes in the vehicles during that time — and at least 69 have perished since Ford Motor Co. launched the Panther platform in 1979.
Ford insists cars safe, but cops keep dying
Fatalities from rear-crash fires are higher than government toll
DETROIT FREE PRESS
December 8, 2003
By Jennifer Dixon
Free Press Staff Writer
First of two parts
Latest Crown Victoria Fire Claims Family of NASCAR Crew Chief
Wreck claims 3 members of family
9-12-03 By AMY WOLFFORD, Staff WriterNews & Record
GREENSBORO — The limousine was a surprise.
Tara Howell Parker — wife of NASCAR driver Dale Jarrett’s crew chief — sometimes shared the perks of the flashy race world with her younger sisters. So on Wednesday, she rented the stretch limo to escort the sisters to and from the Fleetwood Mac concert the three had been anticipating at the Greensboro Coliseum, family said.
The Police Car of Choice has a Deadly Record
Jason Schechterle, a Phoenix officer who was severely burned when his Crown Victoria police car was hit, says Ford must make the car safer. (Al Hartmann/The Salt Lake Tribune)
By Linda Fantin
The Salt Lake Tribune
Officer Christopher Witte is not happy. It's his first traffic stop of the night, and he just got a flat tire on a busy stretch of the busiest interstate in Utah.