user: News: FATAL ACCIDENT The burned Toyota MR2, rear, in which Jose Sierra was killed on Long Island in 1999 after crashing into a Grand Cherokee, foreground.

MILLIONS of Jeep Grand Cherokees from the 1993 through 2004 model years are particularly susceptible to fires when struck from behind and should be recalled, an auto safety group says, based on its review of three independently conducted crash tests, including one performed last month.

The Center for Auto Safety, a nonprofit safety advocacy group founded in 1970 by Ralph Nader, says the Grand Cherokee’s fuel system is clearly more dangerous in a rear-impact collision than those of competing vehicles, like the Ford Explorer, produced in the same era.

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.

In at least one case the driver of the vehicle that struck a Jeep died in a fire. Jose Sierra died of burns in 1999 a day after his Toyota MR2 struck the rear of a Grand Cherokee on Long Island. Two sisters riding in the Grand Cherokee were seriously burned.

Another victim of a Grand Cherokee fire was Cassidy Jarmon, a 4-year-old who was riding in her family’s 1993 Grand Cherokee in February 2006 in Cleburne, Tex. Her mother was stopped on a two-lane highway to make a left turn when the Jeep was struck from behind by a 2001 Chevrolet Lumina, according to the police report.

Cassidy was in a child seat in the second row. She survived the impact of the crash but then there was a fire.

“We actually had witnesses,” said Detective Kelly Summey, who arrived at the crash while the rescue effort was under way and later conducted the investigation. “Almost every one of them said it was instantaneous.”

She said the problem was that Cassidy and a younger sister were strapped into car seats. “So, you are trying to get them unstrapped and cutting the car seats and you have fire all around you,” she said.

The two girls were pulled from the vehicle, but Cassidy, who suffered burns and smoke inhalation, died two days later, Ms. Summey said.

“The damage to the interior of the vehicle was unbelievable,” she said.

The speed limit at the accident site is 60 m.p.h.; based on the skid marks, the Lumina’s estimated speed at the time of impact was 52 m.p.h.

Ms. Summey said her investigation concluded that the gas tank had been punctured by the Jeep’s trailer hitch.

Shortly after the accident, the Jarmons sued Chrysler, asserting that the placement of the gas tank was dangerous. The family could not be reached for comment.

In an e-mail, Mr. Palese, the Chrysler spokesman, wrote that the Lumina hit the Grand Cherokee at a speed that was "substantially higher than federal requirements, which the Grand Cherokee met. And a thorough analysis of rear impact crash data indicates that the Grand Cherokee is no more likely to experience fire as a result of a rear impact than peer vehicles."

Title: Crash Tests Suggest Jeep Fire Risk, Safety Group Says


News: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday he’ll seek a constitutional amendment giving Congress the authority to limit campaign spending by outside groups that can now raise and spend unlimited sums of money to influence elections.

“There should be no million-dollar entry fee for participation in our democracy,” Reid said on the Senate floor.

With the announcement, Reid threw his support behind a proposed constitutional amendment originally put forward by Sens. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) that would override recent Supreme Court rulings equating political spending with speech protected under the First Amendment. Spending on elections by outside groups, including super PACs but also nonprofit groups that spend heavily on political messaging, has skyrocketed in recent years as the courts have effectively prohibited Congress from limiting political spending.

“The Constitution does not give corporations a vote, and the constitution does not give dollar bills a vote,” Reid said. “Republicans seem to think billionaires, corporations and special interests should be allowed to drown out the voices of all Americans. That’s wrong and it should end.”

The Nevada Democrat has promised to bring the amendment before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the coming weeks and to a vote on the Senate floor shortly after that. Needless to say, the effort to pass a constitutional amendment limiting campaign spending faces extremely long odds. Not only must it be approved by two-thirds of both houses of Congress, it would also have to be ratified by two-thirds of state legislatures.

Reid’s support for the amendment marks an escalation in the Democrats’ political strategy moving into the 2014 midterm elections, as they seek to cast Republicans as beholden to big money and special interests, even as Democrats outpace the GOP in Super PAC fundraising.

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assistant: Harry Reid Calls for Amendment to Limit Campaign Spending