A federal agency said today that it was investigating 21 deaths in crashes of sport utility vehicles that may have occurred because the tires disintegrated. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has received 193 complaints about accidents, including those that caused the 21 deaths, that took place when the tread on ATX, ATX II and Wilderness tires made by the Bridgestone/ Firestone Company separated. These tires are found on sport utility vehicles and trucks. Complaints about these tires have trickled into the agency for the last 10 years, but media attention given to accidents involving ATX tires in Florida caused a jump in the number of accidents reported, Elizabeth C. Neblett, a spokeswoman for the agency, said. The agency is working with Bridgestone/Firestone to analyze complaints about the tires. The Ford Motor Company is also involved in the agency’s investigation because ATX and Wilderness tires on Ford Explorers account for many of the accidents reported.
On July 21, two families in Jacksonsville, Fla., filed separate suits against Bridgestone/Firestone and Ford Motor contending that tread on Firestone tires on Ford Explorers separated and caused the death of two passengers. Similar suits concerning the tires have been filed since 1996. Both Firestone and Ford declined to comment about the lawsuits. Most of the accidents involving the tires occurred in warmer areas of the country, according to documents on file at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The majority of these were high-speed blowouts. The tire can disintegrate when the car is going over 60 miles an hour according to Harry R. Baumgardner, the president of Tire Consultants Inc.
The Term Paper on Firestone And Ford: The Tire Tread Separation Tragedy
Firestone/Bridgestone and Ford companies caught public negative attention in the end of 1990s because of their relation to tire tread separation cases, which caused numerous car accidents not only in US, but also abroad. Because they did not take proper actions to eliminate the number of this cases and remove all dangerous products from the market timely, even if they knew that something was ...
in PAGE The New York Times, August 3, 2000 Alpharetta Ga., a former supervisor of the retreading of tires on Bridgestone/Firestone production lines, who is now a consultant. “The physical properties of the rubber are inadequate to handle the stresses which are involved with the tire running on the road, specifically when it’s running in hotter areas,” said Mr. Baumgardner, who has testified in lawsuits about tire safety. Bridgestone/Firestone denied the charges and said it is offering free tire inspections. “These are safe tires,” said Christine Karbowiak, a Bridgestone/Firestone spokeswoman. But the company is encouraging owners to have their tires inspected at company-owned Firestone Tire and Service Centers. The tires have been original equipment on Ford, General Motors, Toyota, Nissan and Subaru vehicles for several years.
Ford is conducting an independent investigation of Firestone tires on its sport utility vehicles.
