(Updates with suit being filed, add comments)
By Jon Herskovitz
DALLAS, Dec 26 (Reuters) - The city of Dallas sued Ford Motor Co. on Thursday seeking information on the automaker's Crown Victoria police cruiser after a deadly fuel-tank fire killed a Dallas police officer, city officials said.
The city filed suit after Ford refused to provide information on its testing on gas-tank technologies.
In October, Dallas police officer Patrick Metzler was killed when his Crown Victoria burst into flames after it was rear-ended at high speed by a drunk driver.
"I really think that when you talk about the safety of law enforcement officers, I can leave no stone unturned," City Attorney Madeleine Johnson said at a press conference. She added that in the past two months two police officers were killed in fires in their Crown Victoria cruisers, the most popular police vehicle in North America.
Johnson said the suit against Ford is aimed at gaining sworn testimony from Ford engineers and receiving information from the company's testing on gas-tank technologies that are supposed to minimize the dangers of an explosion.
Last week, Johnson told reporters that Ford had refused her request for sworn testimony on the tests, saying the company told her office the information was confidential.
Ford officials were not immediately available for comment. Ford said on its company Web site its Crown Victoria Police Interceptor is a safe vehicle.
"The CVPI is a safe, effective and reliable vehicle for police duty. But Ford Motor Company is always looking for opportunities to improve its performance, even in the most unusual circumstances," it said.
The company said that over 80 percent of the police vehicles in North America are Crown Victoria Police Interceptors.
At least 14 police officers have been killed and 11 others hurt in fires triggered by fuel tanks that ruptured in rear or side collisions in the past 10 years, safety advocates said.
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A Dallas city investigation showed that the October accident that killed Metzler caused the car's gas tank to be punctured in four places. Ford said there is no car marketed in the world that could have survived the accident because the driver who slammed into the police car was traveling at 80 miles per hour (130 kph) and had installed a 4-inch (10 cm) steel-tube bumper on his sport utility vehicle.
In the most-recent incident involving a Crown Victoria, Robert Ambrose, a New York state trooper, was killed last week when a sport utility vehicle rammed his vehicle, causing the police cruiser to burst into flames.
Ford is facing several lawsuits over the safety of its police version of the Crown Victoria, including a high-profile case in a U.S. federal court in Ohio.
In October, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said after a 10-month investigation the agency could not find a defect with the Crown Victoria police cruiser.
Dallas officials said Ford is paying to retrofit some 800 Crown Victorias used by the city's police force with a shield that is aimed at protecting the gas tank.