By Miles Moore,
Washington reporter©
WASHINGTON (April 24, 2001) -- Faulty tire design and manufacturing by
Bridgestone/Firestone Inc., as well as Ford Explorer owners’ lax maintenance
of the tires, were to blame for accidents involving the Explorer, a report Ford
Motor Co. has submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
contends.
The report backs Ford’s
long-standing contention that the auto maker is blameless in the Explorer
crashes, and runs counter to studies by Bridgestone/Firestone which cite a
number of factors–including vehicle design–for the accidents. Ford’s
report reviewed legal claims made for property damage or injuries involving 11
different sport-utility vehicles and pickup trucks.
According to the report, the
Explorer ranked eighth among the 11 in the number of legal claims, and failure
of the left rear tire was to blame in 53 percent of the claims.
BFS, based in Nashville,
Tenn., began the recall of 6.5 million Firestone ATX, ATX II and Wilderness AT
tires, most of which were original equipment on the Explorer, on Aug. 9. NHTSA
has linked the tires to accidents causing 174 deaths and more than 700 injuries.
Most of the fatal accidents
involved rollovers of the Ford Explorer, and several reasons have been advanced
for this by various sources, including the Explorer’s high center of gravity
and the recommended tire inflation pressure which Ford set at 26 psi.