Chief doubts flaw in car fire

The police chief suspects the force of the crash caused the gas tank explosion.

By JEANNE STARMACK

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

AUSTINTOWN — The township’s police chief says he’s doubtful a much-criticized design feature in Ford Crown Victoria Interceptors played a role in the fire that injured a township patrol officer in a Sunday morning crash.

“We’re looking into it,” said Police Chief Bob Gavalier. “But I don’t think it has anything to do with it.”

Patrol officer Ross Linert, 48, a 12-year veteran of the force, was in the Akron Children’s Hospital burn unit in critical condition Monday after his 2005 Crown Victoria Interceptor was hit at high speed at 1:08 a.m. on North Meridian Road.

“The gas tank exploded,” Gavalier said Monday. “A wall of flame went right through from the rear to the front of the car.”

Linert, who managed to get out of the car himself, suffered burns over 30 percent to 40 percent of his body. He’s in an induced coma at the hospital, a township police report said.

The Crown Victoria, which Ford no longer sells to the public, has come under much scrutiny because its gas tank is behind the rear axle and in the car’s “crush zone.” The Internet is rife with reported cases of fires after Crown Vics were hit from behind.

At least 30 officers have burned to death after their Crown Vics were rear-ended and hundreds more civilians have died in Crown Vics, Lincoln Town Cars and Grand Marquis, says the Center for Auto Safety, based in Washington, D.C.

An Oct. 27 Cleveland Plain Dealer story on the cars notes, though, that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration studied the Crown Vic in 2002 and determined it met safety standards.

Police departments across the country use Crown Vics. Gavalier said Austintown’s fleet is mostly made up of them.

He said they became popular with police after Chevrolet stopped making Caprice police packages. Officers like the cars, he said, because they are roomy enough when it comes to getting prisoners in and out of the back seat.

Gavalier said he believes the sheer force of the crash contributed to the gas tank explosion in Sunday’s accident.

He said that Ford makes a Kevlar shield for the Crown Vic gas tanks, but that even with such a shield in Linert’s cruiser, “I think the same thing would have happened.”

The rear of the car was pushed almost into the back seat, he pointed out. The car’s back end is completely crushed.

Adrien N. Foutz, 22, of Iowa Avenue in Girard, was driving the 1995 Cadillac DeVille that struck Linert’s cruiser. She was treated at St. Elizabeth Health Center.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol has charged her with driving while intoxicated and aggravated vehicular assault. She was to appear in Youngstown Municipal Court this morning.

Gavalier said he does not know how fast Foutz was driving when the accident happened. Linert’s car was moving when she hit him, the OSHP said.

Gavalier said an OSHP accident reconstructionist is investigating and will determine her speed.