O/T Police Crown Vic Fires

An officer was killed today in Chandler, AZ due to a fire that occured after his Crown Victoria cruiser was hit from behind. This is obviously very tragic, and my deepest sympathies go out to the family and friends of the officer, as well as the force for this terrible loss.

This, and another similar recent incident makes me wonder what the data shows for rear-end collisions involving fires for all police cruisers, and not just Crown Vics. I've noticed the media is extremely quick to bring Ford into the spotlight for things like this, but seems to bury the news if Ford is actually found unresponsible. Sometimes it seems that it's just easy for media to jump on the bandwagon and bash big corporate Ford, without even giving balanced coverage a chance.

I'm not saying Ford isn't responsible for this, I simply want to know what others feel. I am very uninformed about this, and I know the VMF is a great place to learn, so I thought I'd bring it up...

I don't know about you, but around here ALL I SEE are Ford Crown Victoria police cruisers. If they are Chevrolet, they are very old, and I imagine will be replaced by a Ford at the end of their service.

Police cruisers would be highly vulnerable for this type of accident, since they frequently are pulled over on dangerous highway shoulders, traffic lanes, etc. The article I read: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0612pdcarcrash-ON.html says that "The federal government is investigating whether a design defect could be to blame for a series of Crown Victoria accidents that have claimed the lives of at least 10 law enforcement officers nationally, including two in Arizona."

I wonder if this could just as easily happen to a Caprice Classic Cruiser, but maybe there's simply more Ford cruisers out there, or if Ford really has a design flaw here.

I want to again state that I am just trying to see what others think, so that I can learn, and that I am only challenging what the media is trying to sway me into believing. I know this is a sensitive issue and most importantly I want to make it clear that I mean no disrespect to the loss of human life that has occured. An officer's duty is dangerous enough on its own, and it's a tragedy that his or her tools for the job must also be questionable in their safety.