Posted on 09/26/2005 7:27:23 PM PDT by John W
WASHINGTON - May 2002: President Bush attends a memorial for police officers killed in the line of duty. Under his jacket, he's wearing a Second Chance bulletproof vest, according to a company insider critical of the vest.
A year later, a California police officer wearing the same model vest is killed when a bullet penetrates his vest.
Sources involved in the case say the Justice Department now is conducting a criminal investigation into whether the company — Second Chance Body Armor — knowingly sold defective vests to the Secret Service, military and police. The company denies the allegation.
"It means that they put the president of the United States at risk, the first lady at risk, the Secret Service agents that were protecting him at risk," says Steve Kohn, who is representing the company whistleblower in the case.
A company whistleblower says the Secret Service bought possibly defective vests for the president, his detail and others. Another worker told NBC News her group made vests specifically for the president and first lady.
"To find that something could slip through, that possibly would not hold up to the test for which it was designed, it's scary," says Tom Kennedy, a security consultant with Vance International.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
I don't think so.
just watched "MODERN MARVELS" A couple of hours ago. Apparently, at least half of all vests that Second Chance manufactures don't pass muster and are scrapped.
This company is in hot water and should be held accountable for its alleged criminal behavior.
Prosecutors have gathered documents showing that Second Chance was alerted as early as 1998 by the Japanese material maker, Toyobo Co., that Zylon had trouble maintaining its protective properties.
By 2001, Second Chance's research chief, Aaron Westrick, was pleading unsuccessfully with his company's president to replace the vests after his own tests showed them degrading, the memos show.
"Lives and our credibility are at stake,'' Westrick wrote then-Second Chance president Richard Davis in a Dec. 18, 2001, memo. "We will only prevail if we do the right things and not hesitate. This issue should not be hidden for obvious safety issues and because of future litigation.''
Westrick urged Davis to "immediately notify our customers of the degradation problems,'' let those with pending orders cancel them and cease all executive bonuses to save money so the company could pay for a replacement initiative, the memo shows.
Obviously the secret service figured it out and we are being told of it after the fact.
If someone comes at you with a 44 magnum loaded with 300 hardcast flat points, your going to have trouble with any armor you can fit under a suit coat.
Since the company denies the allegation, then I'm sure the CEO wouldn't mind picking one at random and literally standing behind his product for a test demonstration?
Well, any seriously protective armor would be pretty heavy. Anything easily wearable without showing out too much would have to be light - and thus of limited protective efficiency. Maybe the best way to protect him would be a complete plastic surgery makeover together with drastic change of routines, so that very few people would ever know what the president looks like and would be able to tell him from Adam.
That's true, unfortunately.
Almost any common hunting rifle is capable of penetrating most any body armor that would fit under an oversized suit coat also.
This may have something to do with that.
So9
It seems as though I recall a Darwin Award or some-such going to a guy who broke through a plate glass window and fell several stories to his death after trying to demonstrate the "non-breakable" aspects of his product. Quick review of Snopes didn't find it but then again ...
I totally agree .. this should not be made public.
Of course, I would presume the President is no longer wearing that old body armour .. but why even make it public that he was so vulnerable.
I don't like it .. but seeing that it comes from NBC ...
IMPORTANT SAFETY NOTICE – TRI-FLEX VEST WEARER
Dear Tri-Flex Vest Wearer:
Our concern over the degradation of body armor constructed from Zylon® fiber is well known within the law enforcement community. As the concealable body armor industry leader for over 30 years, we were the first manufacturer to conduct a comprehensive performance evaluation of used vests made from Zylon® and the first to give notice of a potential safety problem.
Independent laboratory testing on used Tri-Flex vests to date have not demonstrated a drop in performance below that to be expected in light of NIJ standards. However, used vest testing no longer appears to be a satisfactory way to determine the reliability of Zylon vests.
We have recently received new information from a technical expert advising us that even those products that only partially rely on the stability and strength of Zylon® fabric may be subject to unexpected failure. In light of this new information, we are no longer confident that our Tri-Flex products, which contain up to 31% Zylon® by weight, will perform to expectations for the life of the original warranty period.
AS A RESULT, AND DUE TO A POTENTIAL FOR SERIOUS PERSONAL INJURY OR DEATH, SECOND CHANCE RECOMMENDS THAT YOU TAKE IMMEDIATE STEPS TO REPLACE YOUR TRI-FLEX VEST, WHICH SHOULD BE REMOVED FROM SERVICE ONLY AFTER YOU HAVE OBTAINED A REPLACEMENT.
The mechanism of failure is known as “hydrolysis,” which is a form of degradation that occurs in individual Zylon® fibers used in the construction of soft body armor. We believe this condition is inherent to all of the Zylon® fiber products supplied for use in the manufacture of ballistic vests. The fact that this hydrolytic degradation can result in a sudden, dramatic or catastrophic loss of tensile strength, critical to the performance of our product, only became known to us on May 17, 2005. We have been informed that this sudden loss of tensile strength will vary with individual use and environmental conditions, but could occur within our warranty period even under normal use conditions. While our analysis of Tri-Flex vests in current use indicates modest loss of performance as compared with new products, we have learned that there is no reliable way to predict when the Zylon® fibers might reach the point of failure. We have therefore decided to provide this safety notice even though there have been no field failures reported.
We recognize that you will expect a full and immediate remedy as a result of this notification to remove your Tri-Flex vest from service. Unfortunately, the financial consequences that have resulted from our use of Zylon® fiber have forced us into a bankruptcy reorganization proceeding. We will petition the bankruptcy court and ask that it approve a procedure for presenting claims that may result from this new information. You will be notified once a procedure is established. We did not want to delay this notice while a claims procedure was being developed.
For more information please visit our website at www.secondchance.com, or call 1-800-828-VEST.
NOTHING IS MORE IMPORTANT TO US THAN YOUR SAFETY.
Boy, MSNBC is really on top of things! It only took them 5 months to get this story out!
Second Chance is trying to address its Zylon® fabric problem the best it can, but the replacement cost and lawyers circling like buzzards has put them in bankruptcy. The co. says wear the vests as they are better than nothing and it will try to do replacements or credits when it gets reorganized.
Nice going you NBC Idiots
Just announce to every Loon & Terrorists who hates the President that his Bullet Proof Vest won't save his life
COULD THESE PEOPLE GET ANY MORE STUCK ON STUPID ????
If you read the entire story (or maybe other stories) you find that the vests are perfectly fine when new, but degrade over time.
I'm guessing that during the period Bush was wearing the vest (if he ever did) it was still new, and worked perfectly.
I would imagine they replace these things often for the president, as they get better ones.
And the last thing we need I guess is to point out that our president wears a vest, much less that it MIGHT be faulty.
But it's just the next step in a country where one political party's sole platform is hatred of, and fighting for the removal of, the sitting president and commander in chief of the country.
Soros and friends?
The mmonbats are now lamenting that they missed their golden opportunity.
Very few people are wandering around "with a 44 magnum loaded with 300 (gr) hardcast flat points".
However, no body armor in the world will stop a .22 LR to the head at 10 feet.
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