U.S.A.:Ford blasts Dallas cop car test - Ford Forums

Stacy94PGT · 09-18-2003, 06:50

It says Crown Vic was rigged to fail

September 18, 2003
BY DAVID KOENIG
ASSOCIATED PRESS

DALLAS -- Ford Motor Co. says the City of Dallas rigged a crash test that purported to show the Crown Victoria is vulnerable to deadly fuel tank explosions even when equipped with safety gear.

Ford said its inspection of the car used in the test showed that equipment in the trunk had been welded together, including a crowbar that was aimed at the back wall of the fuel tank, making it easier to puncture a protective trunk liner and pierce the tank.

"It was clearly going to produce a failure to set something up like that," Kristen Kinley, a Ford spokeswoman, said Wednesday.

The Crown Victoria is the most popular police car on the road, but the company has come under increasing criticism about safety.

Since 1983, 14 police officers have died after their cars were hit from behind and the gas tanks burst into flames. Critics say the vehicle's design makes the fuel tank wrap around the rear axle in a crash, making it prone to puncture.

Dallas officials, who are suing Ford over an officer's death last year, hired an outside company to conduct a test of a Crown Victoria with an optional Ford safety pack. The pack is a trunk storage unit made of plastic and a Kevlar liner on the wall facing the gas tank.

City officials said the trunk packs didn't prevent a fuel leak during a crash at 75 m.p.h.

Because the test is part of the city's lawsuit against Ford, company engineers were permitted to examine the car. That's when they noticed the trunk contained an ammunition box loaded with sand and other items that were welded together instead of lying loosely.

"Our engineers were stunned," Kinley said. "No police officer drives around with ammunition boxes filled with sand and welds a crowbar to a floor jack."

Kinley said the sharp end of the crowbar was pointing and resting against the rear wall of the trunk pack. The fuel tank is on the other side of the Kevlar wall.

Ford, which said sales of the $200 safety packs have fallen sharply since Dallas officials announced results of their test, posted its defense on its Web site Friday. Wednesday, it began mailing letters to 80 police departments, ripping the Dallas test.

The president of the company that oversaw the testing defended the test.

"The Dallas crash tests were conducted consistent with scientific method and are scientifically valid," said Mark Arndt of Transportation Safety Technologies Inc., based in Mesa, Ariz.

Arndt said the trunk items were things real police officers carry, and the crowbar was welded to the floor jack to ensure the same arrangement of trunk items in each of three test crashes.

But Ford said that invalidated the testing, and the carmaker criticized Dallas for not disclosing the unusual conditions when it announced the results two months ago. Kinley called it "a disservice to police" that would unnecessarily alarm officers.