Firestone Plant in Illinois Made Many Problem Tires

Aug. 13 -- Former employees of a Firestone plant in Illinois, which made many of the tires recalled last week, say that the plant was plagued with quality-control problems.

Meanwhile, a new report by the Ford Motor Co. says that many of the tires involved in the recall were made during a strike at the Illinois plant.

More than 6 million tires were voluntarily recalled, after a federal investigation began looking into reports that their treads separate at high speeds. The tiresare under investigation in hundreds of crashes that caused at least46 deaths.

ABCNEWS has learned that eight former employees of Bridgestone/Firestone Inc., have testified or promise to testify that they used out-of-date rubber stock for their tires; that radial coils were exposed to humidity, making them vulnerable to rust; and that final inspections were done too quickly.

A report in today’s Washington Post also said that some employees punctured bubbles in tires, in order to cover up flaws in the products.

A lawyer for some of the victims suing Firestone said that this testimony proves his clients’ claims.

“I think the plant conditions that I’ve seen have resulted in the disaster we’ve seen on the highways,” attorney Bruce Kaster told ABCNEWS today.

Ford: Tires Made During Strike

Adding to the questionable practices in the Decatur plant, Ford said it had looked into complaints about tires in its vehicles and found most of problem tires came from the Decatur plant.

Most of the recalled tires—radial ATX, radial ATX II and someWilderness AT brands—are on Ford sport utility vehicles and lighttrucks.

Ford said that the number of complaints they received from car owners with Firestone tires, was 10 times higher for the tires made in Decatur than for the Wilderness tires.

Ford conducted an investigation into complaints about the Firestone tires used in its light trucks to try to pin down where the tires were madeand what may have caused the treads on some to separate.