A possible Ford SUV carbon monoxide leak has led the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to expand its investigation into the matter. The probe will now comprise 1.33 million vehicles.
The NHTSA announced on Thursday that more than 2,700 complaints have been lodged claiming that the exposure of carbon monoxide may have led to three crashes and 41 injuries, Automotive News reported. The probe covers Ford Explorer models ranging from 2011 to 2017.
Complaints have come from civilians and also police who operate Ford Explorer Police Interceptor Vehicles.
Speaking at a media conference on Friday, Austin police department’s assistant chief, Troy Gay, said his department first put out a safety bulletin regarding possible carbon monoxide gas leaks in their Ford utility vehicles.
“I can say that both Ford, as well as NHTSA, currently have opened investigations regarding this particular issued,” he said.
“On March 17 of this year, our department experienced its first exposure to carbon monoxide, which involved one of our APD supervisors, who suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning. Since then our department has diligently been working on this particular issue.”
Gay said that the health and wellbeing of the police officers is their priority, adding that they had taken several steps to ensure this, including installing carbon monoxide detectors in all their Ford utility vehicles.
Responding to this, NHTSA said it would conduct examinations into the Explorer Police Interceptors used by the police department.
CNBC noted investigations had been elevated to an engineering analysis, which could lead to recall and ultimately cost Ford.
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