Public Citizen Report Calls for Wider Recall of Firestone Tires

Consumer group Public Citizen is stepping up a campaign for a wider recall of Firestone tires with a report, due out this week, which says millions of other tires have the same problems that sparked the voluntary replacement of 6.5 million tires.

The report lays most of the blame on a weak “wedge area” near the edge of the steel belts for the tread separation failures linked to 148 deaths, a person familiar with the report said Tuesday.

In August, Bridgestone/Firestone, a unit of Japan’s Bridgestone Corp., announced the recall of certain 15-inch ATX tires and those same-size Wilderness AT tires made at its Decatur, Ill., plant.

The majority of the recalled tires were standard equipment on Ford Motor Co.’s popular Explorer sport-utility vehicle.

Separately, Firestone on Tuesday announced it was recalling 8,000 Mexico-made Wilderness LE tires for a steel-belt-adhesion problem similar to that cited by the company as a factor in the ATX and Wilderness AT failures.

For months, Public Citizen and safety researchers advising lawyers suing Firestone and Ford have been pressing for a wider recall, noting the complaint data includes Wilderness tires made at other plants and other sizes.

Ford and Firestone have said their analysis of the data confirms the scope of the almost completed recall is correct. “Our decisions on these issues are based on hard facts and data,” Bridgestone/Firestone spokesman Cliff Haas said Tuesday.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is continuing to examine whether the recall is adequate.

A spokeswoman for Public Citizen said the report, done in collaboration with Safetyforum.com, which assists plaintiffs’ lawyers, will be released today or Thursday.

Last month Firestone said it had found some manufacturing problems in a rubber skim coat that led to less adhesion of the steel belts inside recalled tires made at the Decatur plant.

The company also introduced a thicker wedge area in Wilderness tires beginning in April 1998, a change designed to ease internal strain and reduce separation.