The fuel tank issues with the Lincoln Towncar, the Mercury Grand Marquis and, most famously the Ford Crown Victoria hav been around for decades. While most sedans today feature a mid-ship fuel tank the "panther"platform upon which these vehicles are build has the fuel tank positioned in the rear of the vehicle which makes the tank vulnerable to rear-end collisions. This problem is shared across all "panther" platform vehicles including the Ford Mustang.

The group most effected by this issue has been law enforcement, which for years has relied on the Ford Crown Vic Police Interceptor patrol car. Given that officers are routinely put in the position of parking their vehicles along the roadway, either assisting motorists or in conducting a traffic stop they have proven to be extremely succeptible to they type of high speed rear impacts that cause these tanks to rupture can catch fire.

As this case shows, however, regular motorists driving civilian vehicles have also been injured or killed.

Via Consumeraffairs.com:

Jury Awards $43 Million in Flaming Lincoln Case

April 20, 2005

An Illinois jury has awarded $43 million to the severely-injured widow of a man killed in a fiery crash two years ago for which the plaintiff's attorneys say Ford Motor Co. was primarily to blame.

Dora Jablonski's husband, John Jablonski, was killed after a car driven by Natalie Ingram, then a 21-year-old college student, slammed into the rear of Jablonski's Lincoln Town Car, which had stopped for construction on Interstate 270, near the Illinois 203 exit, in downstate Illinois.

Jablonski's attorney, Brad Lakin, argued that Ford ignored warnings from its own engineers that designing the 1993 Lincoln Town Car with a vertical fuel tank behind the rear axle was unsafe. Later, the company chose not to spend $9.95 per car to relocate the fuel tank to a safer location.

In his closing statement, Lakin asked the jury to award Jablonski and her family $32 million for medical expenses, pain and suffering, and other expenses but left it up to them to decide on punitive damages. The jury decided on $15 million in punitive damages after deliberating for less than six hours.

Read the rest here.

In my previous life I had the opportunity to work with several prominent attorneys who have litigated on this issue so I have a bit more to say on this topic than I have time for at present.

Perhaps later today.

-- MDT