Jeeps Are Fire Risk In Rear End Collision

By Dev Sethi

The frame of a burned 1993 Jeep Cherokee (foreground).

Millions of Jeep Grand Cherokees, model years 1993-2004, pose significant risk of catching fire subsequent to a rear end collision.  These vehicles should be recalled.  That is the conclusion of The Center for Auto Safety, a nonprofit safety advocacy group founded in 1970 by Ralph Nader.

The Center reports that its review of three independent crash tests reveals that the Grand Cherokee is far more susceptible to a post-collision fire than other peer vehicles of the same generation, like the Ford Explorer (which of course, poses its own serious safety hazards).

About three million Grand Cherokees with similar fuel systems were built by Chrysler over 12 years; some 2.2 million of those sport utilities are still registered, according to Experian Automotive. The Center’s recall request is specifically for the Grand Cherokee, not the Cherokee, a different model.

In an e-mail, a Chrysler spokesman, Michael Palese, said that there was no fire problem with the 1993-2004 Grand Cherokees, and that the vehicles had a good safety record.
When Chrysler redesigned the Grand Cherokee for the 2005 model year it changed the placement of the gas tank, shifting it forward from a position next to the rear bumper to a space ahead of the rear axle — a design long used by some popular competitors. That was not done because of a concern about fires, Mr. Palese wrote, but because the spare tire was being moved from inside the vehicle to a mounting bracket under the rear.

Clarence Ditlow, the executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, based in Washington, says that rear-impact crash tests of 1995, 1996 and 1999 Grand Cherokees showed, in each case, significant leaks of gasoline, posing a danger not only to the Jeeps’ occupants but those of the striking vehicle. In two of the tests, commissioned by the safety group, a Ford Taurus hit the Jeep’s rear at about 50 m.p.h. In the third the Taurus struck at about 40 m.p.h. For a comparison, the center said a 1995 Ford Explorer struck by a Taurus at 70 m.p.h. maintained an intact fuel system.

“The 1995 Ford Explorer showed vastly better fuel system integrity than its contemporary peer 1995 Jeep Grand Cherokee,” the center said last month in a letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The tests were conducted by Karco Engineering of Adelanto, Calif., which also does testing for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and the Federal Outdoor Impact Laboratory, based in McLean, Va.
The federal safety agency began a preliminary investigation of the 1993-2004 Grand Cherokees last August, granting a request made by the center almost a year earlier. In its request the Center for Auto Safety said it found “172 fatal fire crashes” resulting in 254 deaths during 1992-2008 in Grand Cherokees.

Dev Sethi and Ted Schmidt have represented burn victims who have suffered injury in post-collision automobile fires.  If you have questions about the Center for Automotive Safety's report or questions about a fire that occurred after a car collision, please contact either one.