Posted on 10/16/2004 3:31:28 PM PDT by brianl703
AP 2004-10-16 02:31:46
BELLEVILLE, ILL. -- A jury in the first class-action lawsuit filed over the safety of Ford's Crown Victoria police cruisers ruled yesterday the cars are safe, but a judge must now decide if the automaker violated state consumer fraud laws. Class-action lawsuits are pending in at least 12 states over the Crown Victoria Police Interceptor, a specially built police cruiser -- made near St. Thomas -- that accounts for the majority of police cars on U.S. streets.
Since 1983, at least 15 officers in the United States have died in fiery crashes after their Crown Victorias were rear-ended -- including one in Texas last month. Ford Motor Co. contends the deaths reflect officers' risky work rather than a design flaw.
Jurors yesterday agreed the car was safe, dismissing a fraud claim filed in 2002 by the St. Clair County Sheriff's Office and the nearby Centreville police department.
"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," Judy Burgess, one of the jurors, told the Belleville News-Democrat.
"To have 12 folks unanimously agree that the No. 1 police vehicle in the U.S. is safe is very important and significant to Ford," company lawyer Jim Feeney said.
State law requires that the judge rule on three remaining counts: whether Ford engaged in deceptive trade practices, violated Illinois's consumer fraud laws and unjustly enriched the company by the fraud.
Feeney said he expected a ruling in about two weeks.
What a rambling rant that was.....
Yet more evidence that it is high time we shoot all of the lawyers. If the city doesn't like the crown victoria, the solution is easy...don't buy it.
The need for tort reform is real.
So, how much are the trial lawyers going to make off of this?
Actually, as you noted, Dallas mayor Laura Miller is a big part of their problem. With all their massive problems in city operations, law enforcement, and lack of property tax revenue, Miller's very first priority after being elected was to force a citywide smoking ban in restaurants down the throats of the voters. This served only to restrict dining choices and drive a lot of business out of the city. Now diners who want to enjoy a cigarette after their meal simply drive to surrounding communities, while restaurants in Dallas are left to twist in the wind. Restaurant owners are voting for Miller with their feet.
Further, the Cowboys are probably going to end up moving to Arlington primarily because of Miller's socialist whines against Jerry Jones and the team ownership in the media. Further, the area around Texas Stadium is rampant with crime and remains in a state of non-development, and Miller has continually refused to grant even a penny of tax relief to businesses that might want to come into the area and build. Why should the Cowboys play in a slum and stay in a city where the mayor uses them as her personal punching bag? The Cowboys are voting for Miller with their feet.
Miller was hoping for a massive payday from Ford because Dallas city vehicles (including police cars) average 125,000 miles before being taken out of service, where municipal vehicles in well-run cities are removed from service at 100,000 miles. This can be attributed directly to Miller's decreed "cost-cutting" measures so that she can fund her pet social programs. On any given day, 2 out of every 5 Dallas city vehicles are out of service, broken down, or being repaired. Miller's entire complaint against Ford is that their Crown Vic police cars "burst into flame" when encountering high-speed collisions from the rear. Show me ANY automobile of any size that DOESN'T burst into flame when hit from the rear by another vehicle going 90 MPH, and I'll show you an automobile made out of a giant block of ice.
Miller is an anti-business soccer mom socialist and deserves every bit of scorn heaped upon her.
Of course it is. The whole thing has been a crock from day one...a trial lawyer's wet dream.
Sheesh.
Scorn for the mayor, approbation for the Vic.
I REALLY wish I would review before hitting post.
Crown Vics are imported from Canada.
"Yet more evidence that it is high time we shoot all of the lawyers."
Maybe you should kidnap all of the lawyers, and then cut off their heads with small rusty knives?
Then Chevy stopped making the Caprice. Now, the new big Chevy (the Malibu?) has a completely different interior configuration, meaning that radios, video equipment, everything, has to be remanufactured or re-purchased to fit -- basically because of the fairing required on the housing of all interior components to keep them from being torn off and tossed around by an air bag deployment, which isn't unusual in a police cruiser.
That being said, the old "bursts into flames" riff seems to show up an awful lot on lawsuits about cars, doesn't it? Either cars are awfully badly built, or it plays well with a jury.
Fer cryin' in my Ford....a 1983 CV and a 2003 CV are completely different cars.
Those wily Canadians! Sending us “flame-warriors” in the form of Crown Vic's to decimate our policemen! I’ll bet “suicide-jihad-warriors” are tailgating any Crown Vic with Police markings doing over 75-mph. Should Crown Vic’s only be used in “stealth” (i.e., unmarked) configuration? Or should the police thwart the Canadians by switching to used Yugo’s or even resurrected Corvairs or Pinto’s (Pinto SW’s only of course)?
Wow, 15 in 21 years. That's a real epidemic, especially considering how police work never involves dangerous maneuvers or locations that could increase the likelihood of collisions.
Crown Vics rule, BTW... Need to get me a used Mercury Marauder one of these days.
That police officers don't want to pull the car out of traffic lanes when making a stop is something I don't get. Is there some reason they don't want to do that?
Agencies around here seem to favor the new Impalas. They look quite a bit smaller than the Caprices too...
I believe I read somewhere that the frequency of death in these type of accidents was like .01% or something else outrageously stupid. It seems it all was just another lawyers and government extortion attempt.
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