Defensive Driving : Motorists Seeking Protection in Wake of Freeway Shootings

It’s life in the armored lane.

Reacting to a 47-day run of more than two dozen freeway shootings, some Californians are turning to cars modified to withstand any urban violence that comes their way.

“We’ve been getting more than 50 calls a week, and half have been from Southern California,” said Bill O’Gara, vice president of O’Gara-Hess & Eisenhardt Armoring Co. of Cincinnati, builders for 40 years of light security vehicles and heavily armored cars for bankers, generals, sheiks, the Queen of England and every President since Harry Truman.

“The freeway violence in Los Angeles doesn’t seem to be nationwide, but there is (through media coverage) a spillover effect,” O’Gara said. “Typically, people are calling to tell us they are concerned about what is going on and what protection does our product offer. We’re currently in the process of wrapping up several of these deals.”

A deal with O’Gara-Hess & Eisenhardt, generally considered the Tiffany’s of the armored-car business, costs $12,000 for the basic treatment and involves retrofitting the owner’s own vehicle with the Personal Security Vehicle kit. The company provides the PSV glass (a proprietary product by Sierracin Inc. of Sylmar) and all the 007 gadgets.

The conversion, handled locally by their office in Westlake Village, takes 30 days (after your car is delivered to Cincinnati) and includes windshield and windows capable of stopping a .38-caliber bullet or a blast from a 12-gauge shotgun. Also successive blows from bricks, sledgehammers, Louisville Sluggers, tire irons and similar street weapons.

Then comes installation of dual batteries, trick tires, door lock systems and, should you be stuffed in the trunk by bad guys smart enough to jam the internal release, there’s a survival kit of water, flashlight, bandages and freeze-dried food. The deluxe package, PSV Plus, costs an additional

$4,000 and offers a non-explosive fuel tank and an inside-outside intercom for dialogue without lowering the windows.

For tourists--or residents who see freeway shootings as nothing more than a short but deadly trend--a less radical, less expensive remedy is offered by Budget Rent-A-Car of Westwood.

The Westside rental-car agency has two Cadillac Fleetwoods converted by O’Gara-Hess & Eisenhardt. In discreet and diplomatic anthracite gray, each comes with bullet-resistant glass, run-flat tires, a backup battery, and a panic button to open the trunk from the inside. They rent for $79 a day.

“I got the cars 18 months ago and sent out a marketing thing (flyer) to consulates, hotels, heads of corporations, suggesting the cars as protection against kidnappings and ‘smash and dash’ (purse snatching) crimes,” said Pat Harrington, vice president of the Budget franchise.

Harrington, who “got three or four calls a week” when his promotional literature first went out, said inquiries about the modified vehicles have now “gone to 11 calls a week.”

One rental, he said, came from a visiting consular official staying at the Westwood Marquis Hotel.

“This guy wanted the Cadillac purely for his wife and child to go shopping in Los Angeles, to go on the freeways, to do some sightseeing. He was paranoid. They were scared that they’d be shot at. Period.”

In the last two years, according to O’Gara, his company has performed PSV modifications on more than 80 cars nationwide. Because of their acutely angled glass, he said, smaller vehicles such as the Ferrari or Porsche cannot be given the PSV treatment. Current California orders “are from owners of Cadillacs, Mercedes-Benz 500s and a Lincoln Town Car.”

He declined to identify those owners: “We keep their names confidential, it is guaranteed in our contracts and even in the factory, each work order carries a customer number rather than the customer name.”

What kind of Southern Californian has been inquiring about the PSV system? “It seems to be a broad cross section, from nervous Nellies to people genuinely concerned with what’s going on and who want protection from it.”

What kind has been buying? “They are people who are security conscious to begin with and these shootings have just heightened the awareness.

“It’s like an insurance policy, like a home security system. If you’ve got the money, it’s better to be safe than sorry. If you don’t know where your next meal is coming from, it’s maybe not the way to go.”