U.S. Reports 29 More Deaths
In Firestone Tire Inquiry

By STEPHEN POWER and TIMOTHY AEPPEL
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

WASHINGTON -- Federal regulators reported 29 more deaths in their investigation of tires made by Bridgestone/Firestone Inc., including four fatalities since the tire maker announced a massive recall last August.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it has received reports of 148 deaths involving tread separations, blowouts and other problems involving Firestone tires, up from 119 when it last updated its data on Oct. 17. The new death toll includes five fatalities associated with Firestone models that weren't covered by the company's Aug. 9 recall but that the NHTSA warned consumers about in a Sept. 1 advisory.

Meanwhile, Firestone and Ford Motor Co., on whose Explorer sport-utility vehicles most of the tire failures occurred, are moving closer to agreeing on the cause for the failures, according to people familiar with the situation at both companies. Firestone, a unit of Japan's Bridgestone Corp., and Ford have been exchanging technical information and test results in preparation for meetings with NHTSA officials next week, where they are hoping to avoid presenting sharply differing analyses of the underlying problem. "The best case for both companies is to arrive at the same root cause," says a person familiar with the talks.

Separately, in federal court in Indianapolis, plaintiffs lawyers in a mass of class-action suits against Firestone and Ford said they had held preliminary discussions with the tire maker about a possible settlement. One of the lawyers, Don Barrett, said he was "moderately hopeful" the talks would proceed. Ford wasn't involved in the talks. Anthony Prather, a spokesman for Firestone, confirmed that his company had met with the plaintiffs lawyers but said no further meetings have been scheduled.

The lawyers were in Indianapolis for a hearing to hammer out procedural and administrative details in more than 100 class-action suits and individual suits filed in federal court around the country, which have neen consolidated for pretrial purposes.

Firestone officials expressed sympathy Wednesday to friends and relatives of people who died in accidents reported to the government. But the company continued to express doubts about the accuracy of the government's records, noting that the NHTSA accident database "contains duplicate and potentially inaccurate reports."

The NHTSA's latest summary of Firestone accidents includes the first official reports of deaths to have occurred since the recall; all four of those deaths involved Ford vehicles.

Whether Ford and Firestone can finalize their findings before next week's meeting with NHTSA officials is uncertain. When the companies do identify a cause, it almost certainly will involve a laundry list of factors, including tire design and manufacturing.

One thing both companies have agreed on is that part of the problem lies in the so-called skim stock, the rubber that bonds together the steel belts inside the tires. Studies have found that the skim stock in tires made at Firestone's Decatur, Ill., plant is chemically different from the material used in similar tires made elsewhere, especially between 1994 and 1996. Most of the recalled tires were made at the Decatur plant.

According to Ford's analysis of Firestone's adjustment data, the most serious tire problems emerged at Decatur during that period. Most of the tire failures have occurred after the tires come apart in the area between the two belts.

Besides the deaths being investigated by U.S. officials, the Firestone tires have also been linked to more than 40 deaths overseas. NHTSA officials have promised to wind up their investigation within the next three months.

Firestone has recalled 6.5 million tires. NHTSA also has warned consumers that an additional 1.4 million Firestone tires could pose a safety problem. Bridgestone/Firestone has offered to replace these tires for its customers free of charge but hasn't included them in its recall, saying NHTSA relied on faulty data.