Safety Groups Urge Recall of Ford Ambulance Chassis

Three safety groups Friday urged federal officials to require a recall of Ford Motor Co.’s model E-350 ambulance chassis because boiling-hot gasoline sometimes spurts from fuel tanks and fill pipes.

The demand, covering as many as 20,000 ambulances on Ford chassis built from 1983-86, was made at a news conference by the American Ambulance Assn., the Center for Auto Safety and the International Assn. of Fire Chiefs.

“What we need is more engineering and we need it soon,” said Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the automobile safety group.

Ford Asks Inspection

Ford, in turn, on Friday asked all ambulance operators with units built on the chassis to have the vehicles returned for inspection and modification.

The manufacturer denied that an engineering flaw was responsible for the spurting fuel, and suggested that modifications made by the 45 or so ambulance makers accounted for part of the problem. The joint program “is more than a recall,” Ford said, because it covers inspection of items that users have changed.

Ford suggested that other factors include the use of more volatile winter fuel during hot weather.

24 Fires, 5 Injuries

The auto safety group said no one has died in any of the reported incidents of fuel spurting, although there have been 24 fires resulting in five injuries.

The groups issued the recall request, they said, because Ford has been delaying on a program of refitting ambulances with heat shields and pressure relieving devices.

Officials of the government’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration refused to comment on the request on grounds that the Ford problem is under investigation.

The agency had asked Ford in April, however, to conduct a voluntary recall. Ford responded with the modification program.