Are Firestone Tires safe at this point
In some Sept. 12 editions, a headline in the Business section misstated how the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration handled some complaints about Firestone tires. The headline should have said, as it did in other editions, that the agency missed the complaints.Tuesday , September 12, 2000 ; Page E01 On Nov. 30, 1998, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration received a letter from a Ford Explorer owner who said his Firestone tire tread "peeled off like an orange.""Imagine my shock when the mechanics looked at my tire and told me I was lucky to be alive," the letter said, adding that the mechanics told him that Firestone tires on Explorers "are known to lose tread and contribute to or cause Ford Explorers to flip."This was among as many as 26 consumer complaints about Firestone tires, filed since the early 1990s, that NHTSA overlooked in January, when reviewing whether to open an investigation into reports of Firestone tire problems.NHTSA had missed the consumer complaints because of the way its database is organized: They weren't filed under "Firestone" as tire problems; they were filed
Lampe said the automaker's decision to set its air-pressure recommendation at a level lower than Firestone officials advised left "little safety margin" to guard against overloading the vehicle. But even without reviewing the full universe of consumer complaints, Beretzky said in his January memo: "It is also possible that the problem is much larger than our data is suggesting. 5 million tires it recalled last month to two prime suspects: the "unique design" required to meet Ford Motor Co. "Tyson said it's a quirk of the database that the Ford complaints didn't pop up when Beretzky was searching for tire data. "Even more stinging to Ford, Lampe suggested during the hearing that there may be something inherently wrong with the Explorer's design that makes the vehicle highly susceptible to rollovers after a tire has failed. Ford officials say it was only a day or so before the recall. 's specifications and "variations" in the manufacturing process at its Decatur, Ill. NHTSA did note that its complaints increased dramatically after a Houston television station ran a story in February on problems with the tires. "At the same time, McCain said he is writing a letter to urge the Senate Appropriations Committee to drop a provision, now in the funding bill in conference committee, that would bar NHTSA from implementing a system to rate the rollover propensity of SUVs until further study. 7, 1997, NHTSA received a letter from an angry Texas motorist who said she lost control of her 1992 Explorer when her rear passenger side tire lost its tread:"I hit an 18-wheeler and bounced off his truck--twice. Called vehicle owner questionnaires, many of these complaints include photographs of the accidents, insurance reports, and copies of letters and bills sent to Ford Motor Co.
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