NHTSA wants tires added to recall

07/19/2001

By James R. Healey and Jayne O'Donnell, USA TODAY

Federal safety officials have told Bridgestone/Firestone that it should recall millions more tires as potentially unsafe and have given the tiremaker until Friday to respond.

The tiremaker could agree, triggering its second recall in a year. Or it could balk and face a fight with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

"We did meet with NHTSA last week. We continue to meet. A decision is imminent," tire company spokeswoman Jill Bratina said late Wednesday. "We have been very clear to Congress and the public about evidence that shows our tires are safe."

Bridgestone/Firestone, under pressure from Ford Motor, recalled 14.4 million ATX and Wilderness AT tires Aug. 9. Ford's analysis of Bridgestone/Firestone data showed treads were separating at alarming rates. About 6.5 million of the tires were still in service, most on Ford's Explorer sport-utility vehicle.

In an extraordinary move, Ford said May 22 that it would replace an additional 13 million Wilderness AT tires. Ford said continuing analysis showed unusually high rates of tread separation, despite Bridgestone/Firestone denials.

"This is a multimillion-dollar drama playing out in front of us," said Michael Brown, an attorney specializing in government recalls. "The pressure on Firestone to resist NHTSA is very high, because to go along has considerable financial implications on lawsuits, including one by Ford." Brown said that "it would be very hard for any judge to ignore it if NHTSA has come in with this finding" that millions of Firestones are potentially unsafe.

"This is a tough thing to swallow, in dollars and reputation," he said.

Bridgestone/Firestone said last month that it expected the August recall to cost $1.3 billion. Ford said its cost for that recall and the replacement program is $2.7 billion.

A USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup poll June 28-July 1 showed that about half the people blame Ford and Bridgestone/Firestone equally. But among the rest, six times as many blame Firestone tires as blame Ford Explorer.

NHTSA opened an investigation into the safety of some 50 million Firestone tires in May 2000 after receiving a flurry of complaints. NHTSA files link the suspect Firestones, including those replaced by Bridgestone/Firestone and Ford, to 203 deaths. Most occurred when tread separations caused Explorers to roll over.

Bridgestone/Firestone has said the Explorer is poorly designed, allowing it to overturn easily. Ford has denied that.