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According to the Center for Auto Safety, more than 10 times as many people have already died in General Motors (GM) pickup truck fires as in Ford Pinto fires. The Institute for Injury Reduction predicts that as many as 200 more people will burn to death in GM pickups involved in side-impact collisions. If you drive a GM full-size pickup manufactured between 1973 and 1987, you may be exposed to an unnecessarily high risk of fire in a side-impact collision.
The problem with these trucks is that the sidesaddle or dual gas tanks are located below the driver's cab and mounted outside the truck's steel frame rails. The gas tanks were placed outside the frame rails to increase fuel capacity. In this location, however, they may split open like a melon or explode when crushed in side collisions with impact speeds as low as 25 to 35 miles per hour.
Pickups that have been driven for 33,000 miles or more have a greater risk of catching fire in side collisions because the gas tanks may be corroded and worn.
These dual gas tanks on GM pickups made between 1973 and 1983 were protected only by the sheet metal on the side of the truck. A plastic shield was added on the 1984 to 1987 models. In the 1988 model year, GM changed its design to a single gas tank mounted inside the frame rails of these pickup trucks. GM continued, however, to place gas tanks outside the frame rails on 136,000 "crew cab" utility trucks made between 1988 and 1991.
There are several million pickups still on the road today with this type of possible safety defect. This hazard does not exist in pickups made by Ford or Chrysler.
Evidence now surfacing in product liability lawsuits filed against GM indicates that in 1978, a GM task force recommended that safety liners be put inside these gas tanks. The liners, at a cost of $10 a vehicle, may have prevented up to half of the burn deaths and injuries that have occurred since then in side-impact collisions.
The Center for Auto Safety is campaigning for a recall of these pickup trucks. In the meantime, they recommend that owners of the affected pickups either park them or drive them less frequently. In addition, it recommends not filling the tanks more than half full.
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