Vehicle Fires

Cobb cop spots stalled vehicle on I-285, and fireworks begin

Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Doug Payne – Staff
Saturday, July 6, 2002

The Fourth of July ended with a fiery bang for four motorists on I-285, one of them a Cobb police officer.

Sgt. G.A. Abbott was driving westbound on the Perimeter at Paces Ferry Road at 11:45 p.m. Thursday when he saw a white Pontiac Grand Am stalled one lane in from the fast lane.

10/24/2002

By ROBERT THARP and TONY HARTZEL / The Dallas Morning News

An off-duty Dallas police officer working traffic control in an overnight freeway construction zone died in his flaming patrol car early Wednesday after being struck by what police called a speeding drunken driver.

Officer Patrick Metzler, 31, was at the wheel of a police cruiser that was slammed into from behind just after 1 a.m. in the closed right lane in the High Five construction area where Central Expressway intersects with LBJ Freeway.

By Bobby Cuza
STAFF WRITER

October 28, 2002

Mourners on Monday remembered taxi driver Mohammed Yousuf, who was killed Friday in Woodside when his cab was rear-ended and burst into flames — an incident that has prompted calls for a class-action lawsuit against the Ford Motor Co.

More than 90 percent of the city’s yellow taxis are Ford Crown Victorias, which came under federal scrutiny after a dozen police officers died after their cars’ gas tank caught fire in rear-end collisions.