Report: NHTSA investigating 2005-2008 Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptors for steering complaints

FoxNews.com reports via the Associated Press that government safety regulators are looking into roughly 195,000 Ford Crown Victoria police interceptors for defective steering columns. The models potentially affected were made between 2005 and 2008.

At the time of the report publishing, the government has received three complaints for loss of steering control from the steering column supposedly separating. Though no crashes or injuries have been reported to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Additionally, no cars have been recalled.

The NHTSA said in a statement that two of those three complaints involved police cars and one local government fleet vehicle and the separations occurred during low speeds. In the more detailed report, one of those complaints said “steering effort increased just before the separation.”

On top of the actual separation reports, 10 complaints were filed via inspections of steering columns, which all stated that the columns were about to separate.

“The operator was able to bring the vehicle to a safe stop, but they had just begun to accelerate from a traffic light when the shafts separated and the vehicle’s speed was minimal,” said a complaint filed on May 18, 2010.

Ford ceased production of the Crown Victoria police interceptor in 2011 after the Taurus-based Interceptor was introduced to succeed the CV.

– By: Chris Chin

Source: FoxNews.com