Accident Reconstruction Network > News > January 2005 >01/28/05

Accident Reconstruction News Article

Ford says probing more trucks, SUVs for fire risk
By Poornima Gupta

DETROIT, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co. (F.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Friday it was investigating some of its top-selling pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles and minivans from 1997 to 2002 model years for possible fire risk from overheating of cruise control switches.

The investigation, which could include millions of vehicles, follows Thursday's recall of about 792,000 pickup trucks and SUVs for engine fires that may be sparked by the defective switches.

The recall involved some of Ford's biggest money-makers: 2000 model-year F-150 pickup trucks, Expedition and Navigator SUVs and 2001 model-year F-Series Supercrew pickup trucks equipped with cruise control.

"We are also continuing to investigate other models," Ford spokeswoman Kristen Kinley told Reuters.

Ford has so far received 68 complaints of fires from customers, she said.

Ford is now looking into its Ranger pickup truck, Explorer and Mountaineer SUVs and Windstar minivan that are equipped with similar cruise control switches, but Kinley declined to reveal the number of vehicles involved. Those vehicles have so far not shown the same risk of fire as the recalled vehicles, she said.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is also looking into the complaints of fires.

"We need to better understand why these (switches) are failing in the first place," NHTSA spokesman Rae Tyson said.

Ford is in the process of acquiring replacement cruise control switches for the recalled vehicles, which are connected to one injury.

Last month, Ford recalled more than 600,000 Escapes and Mazda Tribute SUVs from the 2002-2004 model years because the accelerator cable may prevent the engine from returning to idle, which could increase stopping distance and result in a crash.

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