Government Probes Goodyear Tires
W A S H I N G T O N, Nov. 21 -- The government opened an investigation today ofGoodyear light-truck tires linked to at least 15 U.S. trafficdeaths.
The move comes three months after reports of tread separations onFirestone tires led to a nationwide recall.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration decided to investigate Goodyear’s Load Range E tires after receiving more than three dozen complaints about tread separations.
Those tires have been used as original equipment on large trucksmade by Ford Motor Co. and Daimler-Chrysler AG. Many of thosetrucks have been modified for commercial purposes, Goodyear said.
The vehicles in question include some Dodge Ram 4250 and 350 seriestrucks. About 27.5 million of the tires have been sold sinceproduction began in 1991.
Goodyear Confident in Tire Quality
Goodyear has documented 30 accidents, 15 deaths and125 injuries involving the Load Range E tires, spokesman Chris Aked said Monday, before the NHTSA formally announced its probe.
He said all have been investigated and attributed to problems such as overloading and underinflation, not a defect.
“We’ve said all along that we’re very confident in theintegrity of the tires,” Aked said. “There is not any issue withthe quality of the tires. There was no reason to take any action asfar as I’m concerned.”
Chris Spagnoli, a Santa Monica, Calif., attorney suing Goodyearover tread separation accidents, said she has shared informationgathered for her cases with NHTSA.
“I think there is a lot of red flags about these tires bothfrom the accidents that we have information about and the publicpart of the deposition testimony,” she said.
Similar to Firestone Probe
Similar allegations led to Bridgestone/Firestone Inc.’s Aug. 9recall of 6.5 million ATX, ATX II and Wilderness AT tires. NHTSAhas received reports of 119 deaths and more than 500 injuriesinvolving Firestone tires.
Reports of tread separations also have plagued ContinentalGeneral Tire Inc. Lawyers for accident victims suing the Charlotte,N.C.-based company say it deceived the government in a 1993 probeof its GT52S, Ameri-Way and Ameri-Tech tires.
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