Critics: Crown Vic cop cars prone to fuel leaks, fires

Ford Crown Victoria police cruisers like the one involved in Sunday morning's tragic crash in Commack have been controversial for more than a decade for an alleged proneness to fuel leaks and fires when struck from behind as well as what critics say is marginal protection of drivers in side-impact crashes.

The location of the gas tank has been linked by critics to more than a dozen deaths of police officers, most in stopped cruisers struck in the rear at high speeds. Attorney Mark Handey of Fort Worth, Texas, said Monday he is suing Ford on behalf of the family of police officer Dwayne Freeto, who burned to death Dec. 17, 2006 when his squad car was rear-ended and burst into flames. "We allege that the Crown Victoria places its fuel tank in a vulnerable place - that it's a bad design," Handey said.

But Ford attorney Douglass Lampe contended in an interview that the tank's location - about 80 percent above and entirely behind the rear axle, upright between the rear seatback and front wall of the trunk - gives the car superior protection in crashes.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 2001 and 2002 investigated 23 fires in civilian and police Crown Victorias and mechanically similar Mercury Grand Marquis and Lincoln Town Cars that involved 14 deaths, mostly police officers. It concluded, in essence, that the vehicles performed no worse than other sedans and that there was no evidence of a safety defect.

Still, Ford has modified the police and civilian cars since the early 1990s including, for police cars starting in 2002, adding five shields designed to reduce the chances that the fuel tank would be ruptured by various bolts, brackets and straps. Said Lampe, "What we've done is take a vehicle that the federal government investigated without finding a defect and we've improved it from that point."

Beginning in 2005, Ford also offered, as an option, a fire suppression kit that automatically sprays foam in a crash and can be activated manually by a police officer. In 2009 cruisers, the system costs $3,495, said Ford spokesman Wes Sherwood in Michigan. He said about 10 percent of cruisers are ordered with it, but he could not say if any are in service in New York State.

Suffolk police would not release details of the patrol car driven by Police Officer Glen Ciano, except to say it was a Crown Victoria. The department would not say if any of its cars are equipped with the optional fire suppression systems.

Nassau police spokesman Lt. Kevin Smith said the department retrofitted older patrol cars in 2002 with heat shields after an upstate trooper was killed in a rear-end explosion. He could not say whether the cars have been equipped with the fire suppression system.

The Crown Victoria is the most popular car available with police performance packages, accounting for about 85 percent of sales to law enforcement.

Police and civilian versions of the Crown Victoria came under criticism in 2006 from the private Insurance Institute for Highway Safety for what it called "marginal" protection of the driver in side impacts, even when equipped with side-impact air bags.