Normally, cops have enough to worry about, what with speeders and drunk drivers terrorizing our fair cities. As if that wasn’t enough, they now have to worry about their cruisers catching fire and burning them to death. A so-called defect in the fuel system of the Ford Crown Victoria that most departments use as their police cruiser has been linked to the death of more than one police officer in recent years. Hit the jump for the rest of the story.

Chances are if you have ever been ‘gracefully placed’ on the hood of a cop car there is a high probability that it was a Crown Victoria because the Crown Vic has been the #1 police cruiser for a few decades. In recent months however, the RWD work horse has come under fire (pun intended) because, well… it catches fire. The case that has received the most attention took place in 2003 and involved the death othe Missouri State Trooper Michael Newton whose cruiser was hit by a passing truck as he was giving a man a ticket for a traffic violation. The fuel tank ruptured and the car burst into flames, killing Newton and injuring the man in the passenger seat. The Missouri State Supreme Court ruled yesterday evening that there was to be a new trial for the case as certain evidence the court deemed important was improperly admitted and therefore unable to be used in the first trial. I had never before heard of a Crown Vic bursting into flames and after doing some research I found this site that has some more information on the matter. [source: AP].