Faulty tire saga picks up steam
By: Drivers.com staff
Date: 2000-09-12
Fallout over the Bridgestone/Firestone tire debacle continues to make the headlines as it enters the political arena with hearings by two U.S. Senate and House sub-committees. In fact, Ford, Firestone, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) all came under fire for failing to take prompt action over the suspected defects.
The legislators want to determine why no one acted sooner in recalling 6.5 million Firestone tires linked to 88 deaths, 250 injuries, and 1,400 crashes, most of them in Ford Explorers, the nation's best-selling sport-utility vehicle. The known death toll was already more than 40 on August 9, when Firestone recalled the tires after a blizzard of criticism from consumers, politicians, and the media.
Appearing before the sub-committees, Ford Chief Executive Officer Jac Nasser said that Ford will work with the tire industry to develop and implement an "early warning system" to detect the first signs of tire defects on vehicles already on the road.
"This new system will require that tire manufacturers provide comprehensive real world data on a timely basis," said Nasser. "We're confident the tire industry will work closely with us on this issue."
"While this is clearly a tire issue and not a vehicle issue, we feel a responsibility to do our best to prevent a situation like this from ever happening again," he added.
Ford is undertaking to advise U.S. safety authorities of safety actions the company takes in overseas markets, and vice-versa. "From now on, when we know of a safety action, so will the world, even if some customers are totally unaffected," said Nasser. This commitment by Ford will begin immediately.
The company continues to devote around-the-clock resources to replacing bad tires with new, good tires, and to helping find the root cause behind the high incidents of failures for the recalled tires.
The NHTSA, the federal agency charged with protecting motorists, is recommending that owners of vehicles with certain models and sizes of Firestone tires not already being recalled by Firestone take a number of actions to assure their safety, based on NHTSA's analysis of the Firestone data.
"NHTSA has reviewed data provided by Firestone on property damage claims, personal injury claims, and lawsuits regarding the tires under investigation. Although its investigation is not complete, that review indicated that the rate of tread separations for certain other tire models and sizes exceed those of the recalled tires, sometimes by a large margin," the agency says.
After meeting with Firestone representatives in Washington, the agency recommended that Firestone expand the recall to include these tire models. However, at the end of August, Firestone advised NHTSA that it would not voluntarily expand the recall at this time.
Says NHTSA: "We are continuing our investigation, which may result in an order directing Firestone to recall these tires and any other defective tires. However, in view of the potential safety risk, NHTSA believes that it is important to alert the public of its concerns now."
The tire models with the high tread separation rates are set out on the NHTSA web site. Approximately 1.4 million of these tires were produced. However, since many of them were manufactured many years ago, it is likely that far fewer are currently on the road. Most of them were sold as replacement equipment and were not installed as original tires on new cars.
"Since Firestone has chosen not to expand the recall at this time, you may not be able to obtain free replacement tires from Firestone. However, in light of these concerns, NHTSA recommends that you consider replacing the tires in question and that you retain all documentation," the agency says.
In a company statement, Firestone replied that NHTSA has said it decided to issue the advisory based upon their perception that the claims rate for the additional tires exceeds that of the originally recalled tires. "It is apparent that NHTSA has misinterpreted our data, as well as the reason for our earlier recall," Firestone said.
"Regarding the earlier recall, the decision was based not just on the claims rate, but on a combination of factors including an assessment of property damage cases; statistical evidence that indicated an over-representation among the reported incidents ... the severity of the incidents; and the application of these tires on certain vehicles, especially in hot climates.
"While we continue to review the situation, please note that claims data is not as reliable an indicator as warranty adjustment rates, the standard that the tire industry has long used to reflect the quality level of tires in the market. Our analysis of the warranty adjustment rate shows that the rate of adjustment on the tires identified by NHTSA is generally within the range of our other tire lines, considering the uses and applications of these tires. In addition, there is insufficient data on claims for these tires to make a valid statistical analysis.
"We will continue to review this situation and will continue our communications with NHTSA on this matter. However, we want to stress that Bridgestone/Firestone takes the safety and satisfaction of our customers very seriously. Every possible resource of this company is aimed at those priorities."
The NHTSA recommends that drivers using the additional tires should take the following steps:
- Check the tires to be sure there are no visible signs of a problem.
- Be sure they are properly inflated.
- Do not drive fast, particularly in hot weather. If possible, choose roads with relatively low speed limits.
- Make sure the vehicle is not overloaded.
- Wear seatbelts.
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