Bridgestone Rejects Wider Recall Request
Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. on Thursday rejected a government request for a wider recall of its Wilderness AT tires, saying the tires are safe and do not warrant further action. The company’s stance sets the stage for a possible forced recall by the government and a court challenge by Bridgestone/Firestone.
Officials from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration presented the results of their investigation to Bridgestone/Firestone executives Thursday morning. NHTSA’s probe focused on the tires not included in the 6.5 million ATX and Wilderness AT tires that Firestone recalled last August because of tread separations involved in hundreds of crashes.
Consumer groups and lawyers for accident victims have been calling for a wider recall for months, claiming that accident data show some of the non-recalled tires are just as failure-prone as the ones recalled. Bridgestone/Firestone disputes those claims and said all the defective tires were covered by the original recall.
The impact on consumers of a wider recall is unclear because many of the tires in question already are being replaced by Ford, which announced in May it would replace 13 million Firestone tires on Ford, Mercury and Mazda SUVs and pickup trucks. However, if Bridgestone/Firestone is forced to expand its recall, it might have to reimburse Ford for the $2.1-billion cost of the auto maker’s recall.
“The agency has completed its defect investigation into the tires in question, and Firestone has been apprised of the results,” a statement from the Department of Transportation said. “Firestone was asked to recall some of the tires and they refused to do so. Therefore, NHTSA will issue an initial defect decision, the next step toward a forced recall.”
An initial defect decision will go into detail about NHTSA’s investigation process and the conclusions reached, NHTSA spokesman Rae Tyson said. If Firestone continues to refuse to recall the tires, a public hearing will be held, followed by a final defect decision, and if necessary, court action to force a recall.
“We will do everything in our power to ensure the safety of the driving public,” said John Lampe, chief executive of the Nashville-based tire maker, in a conference call with reporters. “If one of our tires might jeopardize that safety, then we’ll take it off the road. We’ve done it before and, if it becomes necessary, we’ll do it again. But that is simply not the case here.”
Lampe said the company will use every available step in the process to prove the safety of its tires, including public hearings and the court system.
Tyson would not identify the tires in question, but Lampe said he believes the tires are 15- and 16-inch Firestone Wilderness AT tires that are among those Ford is voluntarily replacing.
At least 203 people have been killed and more than 700 injured in accidents when Firestone tires on trucks, mostly Ford Explorer sport-utility vehicles, lost their treads and vehicles spun out of control or rolled over. The accidents have spawned hundreds of lawsuits, many of which have been settled.
One lawyer said Bridgestone/Firestone is resisting a wider recall in an effort to fend off more lawsuits. “It’s cheaper for Firestone to leave a dangerous product on the road and fight it one case at a time in court,” said Taras Kick, a Los Angeles liability lawyer who in April won a $55-million verdict from tire maker Continental General for a client who was rendered a paraplegic in a 1996 tread separation accident.
An additional recall could involve as many as 15 million tires and cost Firestone billions of dollars, Kick said. “It’s devastating to have a recall in terms of litigation” because of the lawsuits that would be filed, he said.
“Taking more of our tires off the road is not the solution. It doesn’t solve the real problem: the vehicle,” Lampe said.
Ford, which vehemently insists it is a tire problem, said in a statement that it was aware of the NHTSA recall request. Ford “began replacing these tires on our vehicles in May to ensure the safety and trust of our customers and their families,” said the statement signed by Sue Cischke, Ford vice president for environmental and safety engineering. Ford has replaced almost 3 million Wilderness ATs during the last two months, she said.
