Though the Ford Crown Victoria was discontinued years ago, the trusty sedan is still alive and kicking as part of a handful of police and taxi fleets across the U.S. – as well as a frequent participant in certain races. Now, the Ford Crown Victoria is once again playing the part of star in a new video from Team O’Neil – a driving school located in New Hampshire – which has brought us a variety of informative clips in the past involving other Blue Oval models, too. This time around, however, the focus is on explaining how the PIT maneuver is used by law enforcement to take down fleeing criminals.
Team O’Neil offers tactical civilian driving school classes already, so it makes sense that it may want to explain how this ages-old move works in the real world. Here, we get to see instructor Drew Crowley do precisely that, and it’s particularly pertinent since Team O’Neil teaches this tactic in its own classes, too. The entire concept is to stop a vehicle while also maintaining control of one a person is driving, as well as minimizing damage in the process.
To do that, one must aim for the very rear corner of the Ford Crown Victoria being used here, which provides more leverage in a lighter part of the car itself, and it’s also safer, given the fact that the driver can then continue moving forward while the other car spins out. It’s really more of a push than a hit, taking away the other driver’s ability to counter steer and continue driving on.
The PIT maneuver – when done correctly – also minimizes damage and enables the person performing it to continue moving, which is obviously important in the world of law enforcement. However, the move also requires “inch perfect precision” to pull off correctly, which isn’t exactly easy to do at speed when one is following an unpredictable driver. Luckily, that’s precisely why it’s taught in a setting like this before it’s exercised in the real world.
We’ll have more interesting videos like this to share soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for more Crown Victoria news and around-the-clock Ford news coverage.
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