Public safety vehicle rodeo

It’s not every day you get to see police vehicles and fire trucks in action – and usually, when they are in action, it means bad things are happening so the average person would rather be as far away as possible.

Luckily, during the 2011 NAFA Institute & Exposition held April 9-12 in Charlotte, NC, fleet managers got to check out both types of vehicles without a whiff of danger being in the air.

First up, some of the latest models of cop cars get put through their paces, including Ford Motor Co.’s brand new police interceptor sedan, which only looks like a Taurus on the outside. The vehicle comes equipped with all wheel drive (AWD), which helps it hug the road during high speed turns, as you’ll see below.

NAFA held its public safety vehicle rodeo at the Michael Waltrip Race World facility in Cornelius, NC, about 20 minutes outside of Charlotte – giving attendees a glimpse of what a NASCAR racing shop looks like. (We’ll take our own look inside Waltrip’s shop in a future post.)

The Cornelius-Lemley Volunteer Fire Department showed off one of their heavy-duty “quints” alongside all the police vehicles, a unit known as “Ladder 4,” giving attending fleet managers a chance to go for a ride in the vehicle’s aerial bucket high off the ground.

One thing is for certain. After getting a glimpse of the capabilities these vehicles offer, I've got more respect than ever for the work police officers and fire fighters do every day.