WASHINGTON, D.C. - Attorneys and the families of victims of fiery crashes involving Crown Victoria police cars, as well as an officer from Cobb County, Ga., who survived a fuel tank fire, on Wednesday called on Ford Motor Co. to act faster to improve the safety of the cars. <br>
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David Perry, a personal injury lawyer from Corpus Christi, Texas, said fire suppression powder and foam-filled bladders that can be added to gas tanks to prevent fires in a collision are available for Ford to install in the roughly 400,000 Crown Victoria police cars being used around the country. <br>
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Ford spokeswoman Sara Tatchio said the company is getting two bladders from a Bend, Ore., company. She said the Fuel Safe bladders will be put through a series of tests before deciding whether to install them in the vehicles. The companies are negotiating on how to conduct the tests and share information. <br>
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``We are very actively working on these as we promised to do on June 25'' when the company formed an internal team to investigate the fires, Tatchio said. ``We are not only looking at a similar type of fire suppression they talked about, but several others, and we are actively testing them.'' <br>
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The bladders cost around $1,500 per vehicle and the fire suppression powder another $500, according to Perry. The bladders have been mandatory on the NASCAR racing circuit for about 30 years. <br>
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Since 1983, 12 officers have been killed when a Crown Victoria gas tank caught fire, often after being hit in the rear in a high-speed crash. <br>
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Four fuel tank fires have occurred in the last four months, including those that killed Columbia County, Fla., sheriff's deputy Jefferson Davis on his 24th birthday and 25-year-old officer Robert Nielsen of the Chandler, Ariz., Police Department. <br>
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Nielsen's wife and Davis' parents spoke at the attorney's press conference Wednesday, along with Sgt. Greg Abbott of the Cobb County police department, who was able to escape a fuel tank fire that erupted after his was rear-ended by a semi-truck by crawling out the passenger side window of his cruiser. <br>
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``We deserve to have the protection that is available right now,'' Abbott said. <br>
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Ford officials hope to issue preliminary findings from their internal investigation into the fires in about a month. <br>
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``This effort is a top priority at Ford, however, there is no proven quick fix to solve the complex challenges posed by these extremely high-speed crashes,'' Ford safety chief Susan Cischke said in a statement.
