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US:Jury rules Crown Victoria police cruisers are safe

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#1 ·
Jury rules Crown Victoria police cruisers are safe

Associated Press

BELLEVILLE, Ill. -- A jury in the first class-action lawsuit filed over the safety of Ford’s Crown Victoria police cruisers ruled Friday that the cars are safe, but a judge must now decide if the automaker violated state consumer fraud laws.

Class-action suits are pending in at least 12 states over the Crown Victoria Police Interceptor, a specially built police cruiser that accounts for the majority of police cars on U.S. streets.

At least 14 officers nationwide since 1983 have died in fiery crashes after their Crown Victorias were rear-ended.

None of those deaths were in Illinois, but the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Office and nearby Centreville Police Department sued Ford in 2002. They accused the Detroit automaker of fraud and deceptive trade practices in a bid to force the company to retrofit cruisers with special safety equipment.

The jury was asked to decide whether Ford committed fraud by failing to disclose alleged problems with the car to law enforcement agencies. But jurors ruled Friday that the car was safe, dismissing the fraud count.

“It’s a terrible thing that someone has to die, but their cars are no more dangerous than other Crown Victorias on the road now,” juror Judy Burgess told the Belleville News-Democrat.

Attorneys for the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Office and the Centreville Police Department did not immediately return calls to The Associated Press for comment Friday.

Lawyers for Ford argued during the trial in Belleville that the vehicle is safe -- but officers are more likely to travel at high speeds and park at the sides of highways, creating a higher risk for serious accidents.

“To have 12 folks unanimously agree that the Number One police vehicle in the U.S. is safe is very important and significant to Ford,” said Ford attorney Jim Feeney.

St. Clair County Circuit Judge Lloyd Cueto now must rule on three remaining counts.

Under Illinois law, Cueto has to decide whether Ford engaged in deceptive trade practices, violated Illinois consumer fraud laws, and unjustly enriched the company by the fraud.
 
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#2 ·
Ford wins cop-car suit

Jury says company not to blame for fiery crashes

BLOOMBERG

An Illinois jury found that Ford Motor Co. was not to blame for fiery collisions involving its Crown Victoria police cruisers.

The St. Clair County jury in Belleville, Ill., said after less than two hours of deliberations Friday that Crown Victorias are reasonably safe and rejected claims by police departments that Ford's placement of the vehicles' gas tanks behind the rear axle makes the cars more vulnerable to fuel-fed fires in high-speed, rear-end collisions.

The Illinois departments, suing as a group, claimed Ford breached warranties and committed fraud by failing to disclose dangers. The lawsuit is the first to go to trial of more than a dozen class actions brought against Ford by police agencies over alleged Crown Victoria defects. Ford said the company hoped the decision would discourage other lawsuits.

"We believe this jury, the first to consider this claim, has rendered a common-sense verdict," Ford attorney Doug Lampe said. "We hope that other police departments will recognize the verdict and choose to cooperate rather than litigate with Ford."

The Illinois police departments haven't decided whether to appeal, their attorney David Perry said. The departments were seeking $46 million in actual damages and $750 million in punitive damages. Three other claims against Ford in the case are awaiting a ruling from the judge.Similar suits are pending in New Jersey, Texas, Louisiana and at least 12 other states. Michigan is not one of them. The Illinois verdict won't affect those lawsuits, said Michael Ryan, who represents Florida agencies suing Ford.

"In the end, the departments believe Ford can make these cars safer and should bear that financial expense," Ryan said.

The jurors didn't believe the police department claims about the Crown Victoria Police Interceptor, said juror Judy Burgess, 53.

"We felt they were reasonably safe," said Burgess, a school cafeteria worker in O'Fallon, Ill. "You're not going to stop accidents from happening."

A 2002 government investigation in the Crown Victoria found no specific defect to blame for the fiery crashes, though Ford still offered to retrofit police cruisers with special shields around the gas tanks.

The police departments said that Ford committed fraud by concealing the dangers of the Crown Victoria and misleading them on possible safety fixes. Ford's placement of the gas tank behind the rear axle has led to the deaths of 12 police officers in post-collision fires in the United States, Perry said in closing arguments Friday.

Perry called the car a "big Pinto," comparing it to a small car made by Ford in the 1970s. Ford was sued by customers who made similar allegations about fires resulting from rear-end collisions involving its Pinto model.

Ford attorney Jim Feeney rejected Perry's claims, insisting in his closing argument that the Crown Victoria has no defects and that no police car could better protect officers.

"In Illinois there have been eight rear-end collisions in police vehicles since 1992 involving fire," Feeney said. Three of these involved Crown Victorias, he said. No Illinois police officer has died in such an accident, he said. "Isn't that reasonably safe?" he asked the jurors.

Any fuel tank can leak, and any car can catch fire in a high-speed crash, Feeney said. "Every witness agrees there is no leak-proof or fire-proof vehicle," he said. "Are you going to hold Ford to an impossible standard?" he asked.

Police officers don't believe the Crown Victoria is unsafe, Feeney said. Even after suing Ford, police departments, including the one in St. Clair County, Ill., continued ordering Crown Victorias, Feeney said.


The lawsuit was filed on behalf of every law enforcement agency in Illinois.


Ford has about 85 percent of the market for police vehicles in the United States. The market share hasn't changed since the filing of lawsuits, Lampe said. About 350,000 of the vehicles are still owned by police departments, Ford says.
 
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