Disfigured Phoenix Police Officer Sues Ford Over Car Fire

A police officer whose face was severely burned when his patrol car burst into flames after being hit from behind is suing Ford Motor Co., contending that it had an “unreasonably dangerous” car on the market.

Officer Jason Schechterle’s lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for his pain, medical expenses and lost wages. It also seeks punitive damages.

Schechterle was answering an emergency call in his Crown Victoria cruiser in March 2001 when a taxi slammed into him. Schechterle lost his entire face after surgeons cut away the dead tissue.

The lawsuit says the crash punctured the gas tank, which caused a leak and led to the fire. The cruiser was in a “defective and unreasonably dangerous condition when put to the use for which it had been designed,” the lawsuit contends.

Ford has denied that the cars are dangerous but agreed last year to fund installation of shields designed to protect the fuel tanks in 350,000 Crown Victoria patrol cars.

The move came after police departments complained that the vehicles were prone to burst into flames in high-speed, rear-end collisions. At least a dozen officers throughout the country have been killed in fiery crashes in Crown Victorias since 1983, including three in Arizona.

Ford spokeswoman Kristen Kinley said Thursday that no vehicle can withstand such a high-speed crash and that such accidents are rare, having occurred 13 times in 20 years. The company maintains that the cars are safe.

Kinley said she couldn’t comment specifically on Schechterle’s lawsuit until Ford lawyers have time to review it.

At a news conference Thursday, Schechterle called the shields partial fixes and asked that Ford use its best technology to ensure that tragedies don’t occur again.

Ford “has a responsibility to give police officers the safest vehicles they could possibly make,” Schechterle said. “I recognize that I am the most powerful living voice in this case. No one should know what I know about pain, surgeries and the recovery process.”

The lawsuit also names as a defendant the taxi driver who was suffering an epileptic seizure when his vehicle rammed into Schechterle’s police cruiser.