Goodyear Delayed Improvements
On Truck Tires Linked to Failures

By TIMOTHY AEPPEL
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. decided to strengthen a type of light-truck tires linked to a series of deadly tire failures as early as 1996, but didn't make the change to all the affected tires until last year.

The delay in improving the tires is likely to raise questions about whether Goodyear, upon seeing a rise in damage claims involving the tires, acted too slowly. It made the changes first on a line of tires that represented the most damage claims and went on to other lines that had fewer, but still significant, claims, according to a court deposition related to a lawsuit brought against Goodyear.

Goodyear last week disclosed there have been at least 15 deaths and about 120 injuries related to failures of the Load Range E tires, used mainly on commercial vehicles, as well as pickups, large sport-utility vehicles and vans.

A Goodyear engineer stated in a deposition that the team investigating the failures moved methodically, even though the improvements -- essentially adding a layer of nylon that goes over the steel belts to help hold them in place -- were shown to be effective in reducing tread separations. Engineer Beale Robinson noted that 4.5 million tires were involved and that modifying them involved "some megabucks."

"We had to be thorough, we had to know that we had a solution, that there weren't better solutions, alternative solutions that were more cost effective," he said in an August deposition in one of 20 pending lawsuits against Goodyear.

Goodyear spokesman John Perduyn said it takes time to analyze each type of tire and that overlays couldn't be applied to all "overnight." He also noted that Goodyear did eventually put nylon overlays on the tires. "That comment doesn't mean that it's cost vs. safety. Obviously, in the end, we decided to put the overlay on them all," he said.

Portions of Mr. Robinson's deposition are under court seal along with five boxes of documents, which plaintiffs' attorneys and public-safety groups are pushing to make public. A hearing on that issue, which was set for tomorrow, was postponed for at least two weeks. Goodyear says such documents contain trade secrets. Goodyear Chief Executive Samir G. Gibara said in an interview this week that he also is concerned that communications between tire engineers found in such documents can be easily taken out of context.

Several teams of engineers, one called the Tread Throw Team, began studying the problem in 1996 and determined there was no defect. But to add a margin of safety to the tires, the company began adding the nylon layer. Mr. Gibara said the extra layer of nylon over the steel belts was added to make them more "robust." But he said this doesn't mean the tires were faulty without that added layer.

"We make improvements in our tires all the time," Mr. Gibara said. "Our engineers determined that the tires are not defective, so there was no recall, and they would add the nylon overlay."

A National Highway Traffic Safety Administration official said the agency is monitoring complaints against the Goodyear tires in question and reviewing its database to determine if it has information that would warrant an investigation.

NHTSA has come under intense criticism for not acting sooner to push for the recall of 6.5 million tires made by Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. and allegedly linked to at least 119 deaths in the U.S. and 40 or so deaths overseas.