Return to October 2002 Newsletter

In The News

Every day the ARC Network updates the web site with valuable, important industry news. Following are a few articles from last month.

 

Ford Agrees to Put Fuel-Tank Shields in Crown Victoria Police Vehicles Ford Motor Co. and the Arizona Attorney General on Friday said the auto maker will install and pay for fuel-tank shields on Crown Victoria Interceptor police vehicles. During a press briefing, Arizona Attorney General Janet Napolitano said Ford will offer an upgrade kit, which will include the shields. The company also said it will offer an optional trunk package, which is designed to help police officers carry sharp-edged heavy equipment more safely. Additionally, Ford will offer a trunk pattern that can be placed in the truck to show how equipment should be mounted in the trunk. Upgrade kits will be available beginning in October. Ford also said it is starting a new Web site, cvpi.com, which will contain information on police safety and serve as a communication line between the company and law enforcement. All police department orders of Crown Victoria Police Interceptors will be built with the fuel-tank shields from today forward, Ford said. Read the full article

SUV Rollover and Tire Safety Litigation Coverage Expanded by LitWatch LitWatch is expanding its coverage of sport utility vehicle ("SUV") rollover and tire safety litigation. LitWatch, which is the premier litigation news service, is expanding coverage of lawsuits filed in state and federal courts against tire producers, like Bridgestone/Firestone, and auto manufacturers, like Ford Motor Company. This expanded coverage has been triggered by the demise of the multi-district federal class action, now on appeal to the US Supreme Court. Individual SUV rollover and tire failure cases are now proceeding simultaneously in many separate state and federal courts. "The federal courts have declined to handle this as one organized case, which means that it's every plaintiff's lawyer for himself. This will be the Oklahoma land rush of this decade, with hundreds of cases, seeking billions of dollars in damages, filed throughout the United States," said John W. Toothman, Editor-in-Chief of LitWatch. Toothman notes that "Something unique about these cases is the conflict between the automotive and tire industries, which makes every case a potential land mine for both." Read the full article

Ford Crown Vic Police Safety Concerns Prompts i-Track to Show GPS Wireless Officer and Vehicle Safety System to State Police Agency Officials "i-Track," Inc. (OTCBB:ITRK - News) AVL's Exclusive World Wide Distributor, announced today, that it will be showing its newly designed proprietary i-Track Chaperone(TM) Satellite vehicle safety and GPS satellite tracking system to officials of a State Police agency today. AVL engineers have modified the personal tracking system i-Track Chaperone(TM), to facilitate the demands of police to have immediate information regarding vehicle crashes and officer safety related information from the field. The small in vehicle unit is covertly installed and is connected to both a Ford(TM) Motor Company crash sensor, which is built specifically for Crown Victoria Police vehicles, as well as a small panic button. In the event of a vehicle crash, the unit automatically responds with an emergency email and or page or cell phone notification to the command center dispatcher. The email has a live hyper-link that shows the actual location as well as the nature of the event. AVL has been the pioneer of event-based vehicle tracking systems worldwide for over a decade. The message text relates the type of event, i.e, "officer needs assistance" and or "crash" and simultaneously provides the location on a map that is both date and time stamped. Read the full article

Return to October 2002 Newsletter