http://tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/10229
High-Speed Chase Helen Gonzales is the policy director of USAction's Corporate Truth Squad. USAction is a progressive activist organization, dedicated to winning social, racial and economic justice for all. It represents three million members in 34 affiliates, with statewide organizations in 24 states. Police officers don't drive their cars like the rest of us. Even the most casual TV watcher will be familiar with the car chases on California state highways filmed by helicopter, or the hapless drunken joyrides of petty criminals on the TV show Cops. These pursuits are very often brought to a close by a police officer's white cruiser ramming the crook off the road. When they are on call, police ignore traffic laws and crash their cars if they have to-it's a part of their job. So it's fair to assume that their vehicles should be outfitted for demolition derby conditions without endangering the lives of the officers who drive them. Unfortunately, one of the most popular cruiser models purchased by police departments in America-Ford's Crown Victoria Police Interceptor-is not equipped to withstand rear-end crashes even at regular speeds, costing the lives of at least 14 police officers since 1992, four of whom died in 2002 alone. These deaths occurred because of a poor design feature in the Crown Victoria-the car's fuel tank is located behind the rear axle within the car's "crush" zone. Rear-end collisions to the Crown Victoria have the potential of puncturing the fuel tank, causing dangerous leaks and explosions. This is exactly what occurred to one police officer, Jason Schecterle, who was rear-ended by a taxicab in 2001. His cruiser ignited in flames almost immediately after the crash, and Schechterle suffered serious burns to his head and hands. His recovery has required amputation of two of his fingers, 30 surgical procedures and ongoing cosmetic surgery. This problem extends beyond bad engineering-Ford has known about the problem in its cruisers since at least 1999, and has made efforts to conceal its guilt and liability instead of properly addressing the design flaws. When concerns about the design of the Crown Victoria began to come to light as a result of class action suits in 2003, Ford Motor Company made misleading claims about engineering improvements and tests it ran to make the Crown Victoria safer. Ford claimed that retrofits that added fuel tank shielding and a Kevlar liner to the Crown Victoria cruiser trunk met a 75-mph rear-crash standard-even boasting in a marketing piece that police car purchasers should challenge other competing manufacturers to meet that standard. The sad truth is that Ford never even tested its Crown Victoria retrofit. The city of Dallas ran its own crash tests on the "upgraded" Crown Victoria and found that though fuel tank punctures were in fact less likely, the greater possibility was that rear-end crashes would cleave the tanks in half-a much more deadly scenario. Officers like Schechterle and the families of officers who were killed in rear-end Crown Victoria crashes have not seen inspired and responsible action taken by the Ford Motor Company. It has taken efforts by investigative news reporters and police organizations, as well as class-action lawsuits against Ford filed by crash victims and their families, to retrieve internal documents and receive honest testimony about Ford's corporate misdeeds. Meanwhile, Ford has adopted the dark art of evading corporate guilt. In 2003, Ford tried to deter thousands of potential officers from joining a class-action suit in Illinois by hiring a litigation communications firm to write a brochure that claimed the crash tests conducted by the city of Dallas were rigged. Ford then had the brochures mailed to law enforcement agencies that purchased the Crown Victoria in the state-ignoring the presiding judge's orders not to do so. Despite its efforts to the contrary, Ford is being forced to assume responsibility for covering up this deadly design flaw. The dozens of class-action suits filed against Ford have helped to reveal that the Crown Victoria Police Interceptor model has a rate of fatal collision fuel-fed fires far higher than other police cruiser models. Ford's internal studies showed that its Crown Victoria caused 140 percent more fuel-fire deaths than the competitive GM police model, and was 200 percent deadlier than Ford's own family sedan, the Escort. Without the class-action suits that brought the Crown Victoria's flaws to light through sworn testimony, Ford would not have been forced to redesign the car, or to assume culpability for the deaths of more than a dozen police officers and the hundreds of injuries. It's one successful case in the ongoing battle to uncover the legions of examples of corporate cover-up and malfeasance. Imagine that. Until it was forced with court action to admit and address the Crown Victoria's deadly flaw, Ford and its engineers were content to have Escort-driving joyriders be less likely to die in a flaming wreck than the police who chase them. Published: Apr 26 2004 ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/FGYolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/biofuel/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
