Ford’s Overseas Tire Recalls Under Review
Ford Motor Co. should have notified the federal government when it began to replace Firestone tires on sport-utility vehicles in foreign countries last year, Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater said Thursday.
In his sharpest remarks on the tire safety controversy that has tarnished the reputations of two major companies and his own department’s consumer watchdogs, Slater also said he is considering asking Congress to mandate that manufacturers report problems earlier.
Slater’s comments came as two congressional committees are proceeding with plans for hearings on how the companies and the government handled the tire safety problem.
The Senate Commerce Committee, led by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), announced it will hold hearings Sept. 6. And the House Commerce Committee said it is sending investigators to Ford’s headquarters in preparation for its own hearings. House and Senate staffers have said the panels want to determine whether the system for handling auto safety problems needs to be fixed.
Firestone voluntarily recalled 6.5 million 15-inch ATX, ATX II and Wilderness AT tires Aug. 9, in response to complaints that the tire treads were coming off, often while consumers were driving at highway speeds. Most of the tires were installed as factory equipment on the popular Ford Explorer SUV.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has said it is also scrutinizing other Firestone models to see whether there is a problem, leaving open the possibility of further recalls.
A Times analysis of consumer complaints to the government found that failures of the tires have been blamed for at least 166 accidents and 54 deaths. Of the fatal accidents, 89% involved a rollover crash after drivers lost control of their vehicles as a result of tire failures.
Federal law requires companies to notify NHTSA regulators if they believe they have discovered a product defect. But there is no notification requirement if companies conclude their equipment is not at fault, although hundreds of complaints and lawsuits may be piling up.
“I think there is a question about timing,” Slater told reporters at a question-and-answer session in his office. “We should have known about the recalls in other countries.”
Asked whether companies should be required to automatically report lawsuits and consumer complaints, he responded: “We are considering that--yes.” He refused to elaborate on what specific additional reporting requirements the department might ask Congress to approve.
As a political appointee in the waning days of a lame duck administration, Slater lacks power to win major legislative changes on his own. The hearings will probably determine the outcome of the issue if lawmakers from both parties become convinced that stricter reporting requirements are needed.
Ford began replacing Firestone tires on Explorers in 10 Middle East countries last fall. Recalls followed in Malaysia, Thailand and Venezuela this year. But it did not notify U.S. regulators. The company contends it was under no obligation to do so.
Ford Vice President Jason Vines said the auto maker does not deserve to be scolded, but should be credited with finding the problem after it asked Firestone to investigate the performance of its tires in the United States.
“It wasn’t until we asked for specific data from Firestone and started analyzing it ourselves that we pinpointed the problem and the solution,” Vines said. “We are the ones who found the needle in the haystack.”
The NHTSA began its investigation of tire complaints in May. As part of that, the agency is trying to determine whether Ford or Firestone in fact had a legal obligation to pass on what they knew earlier.
Despite his criticism of the manufacturers, Slater said he is satisfied with the scope and pace of the recall in the United States and does not want to engage in a “blame game.”
Slater also defended the NHTSA, saying the agency simply did not have enough information before May to open an investigation of the tires. Asked about an e-mail from State Farm Insurance that alerted the NHTSA to the Firestone problem in 1998, Slater responded, “In the future, if we get e-mails, we’ll probably inquire about them more.”
Addressing a major question in the NHTSA’s investigation, Slater said officials believe the problem is “more of a tire issue” than a defect in the Explorer.
Many concerns have been raised about the relationship between the tires and the Explorer.
The attention has chiefly focused on Ford’s recommendation that the tires be inflated to 26 pounds per square inch, a lower pressure than called for by Firestone. A lower pressure would cause tires to experience more friction against the roadway, generating hotter temperatures that might eventually affect their condition.
Ford documents disclosed in lawsuits show that part of the reason for the lower-pressure recommendation was that the company wanted to reduce the likelihood of rollovers in its top-heavy SUVs.
Newly appointed NHTSA Administrator Susan Bailey said Thursday that investigators continue to look at the relationship between the tires and the Explorer, but that “it is a tire problem, first and foremost.”
Firestone spokeswoman Cynthia McCafferty said the company’s main concern is to get replacement tires to its customers. “We haven’t determined what the root cause of this problem is, and we are the ones who recalled the tires,” she said.
But Ford said the NHTSA’s conclusion jibes with what it has found. “There are 500,000 Ford Explorers from 1995 to 1997 that had Goodyear tires on them and there have been zero tread-separation claims for 2.3 million Goodyear tires,” Vines said.
NHTSA officials said they have asked Goodyear to provide information on its tires to check its experience against Firestone’s.
Separately, the NHTSA also released a summary of customer complaints about Firestone tires received by Ford, which showed that consumers were much more likely to contact the auto maker than the government with their tire problems. Whereas the NHTSA had 621 complaints about Firestone tires in its files, Ford reported at least 1,827.
In a related development, Slater said he would recommend that President Clinton veto this year’s transportation funding bill if it retains a Senate provision that would delay a proposed rollover-safety rating system for new vehicles.
The NHTSA is proposing a scale based on a mathematical formula that takes into account the height and width of a vehicle. The auto industry opposes the system, saying it fails to take into consideration other vehicle characteristics, such as its suspension.
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DAMAGE CONTROL
Tire maker Bridgestone/Firestone pledged to restore its good name. C1
