Congress To Grill Ford Over Tire Tests
Sept. 20, 2000 -- Ford Motor Co. can expect another tough day before Congress Thursday as one of its toughest critics is expected to grill company officials on how the automaker tested potentially dangerous tires.
Rep. Billy Tauzin, the chairman of the House Commerce consumer protection subcommittee, plans to examine the tire testing methods of Ford, as well as those of Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. Tauzin, R-La., is expected to ask executives why tires were not tested on actual Ford Explorers, sources familiar with Tauzin’s plans said.
Ford representatives are likely to respond that they repeatedly tested the tires on a testing device called a “mule,” a simulation vehicle programmed to act like an Explorer , the sources said. The tires, Ford has claimed, passed the mule test.
Ford has come under fire since Bridgestone/Firestone voluntarily recalled 6.5 million 15-inch sport utility vehicle tires on Aug. 9. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration advised consumers to replace an additional 1.4 million tires on Aug. 31.The tires under the recall, ATX, ATX-II and Wilderness AT tire, are found mostly on Ford Explorers, and investigators believe Ford knew about defects in the tires long before the recall and chose to hide it from the public.
Missing Tests
Thursday’s hearing comes the day after the Senate Commerce Committee approved a bill to consider raising penalties for automakers that withhold safety data. Federal investigators previously said important 1996 testing results on Firestone tires couldn’t be found.
Sponsored by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the bill would require automakers and their suppliers to share more safety information with the federal government and significantly strengthen penalties for those who withhold key data. Tauzin will propose a similar bill in his hearing that also aims to get more safety information.
Congressional sources said Tuesday Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. may have known about tire problems back in 1996.
But some testing data on the tires’ mid-range performance is missing from the information Bridgestone/Firestone gave to federal investigators, sources tell ABCNEWS. Firestone provided testing data showing the tires passed minimum government safety standards as well as extreme tests designed to produce tire failure.
For example, Firestone did tests on the problem tires in 1996 which reportedly showed a pattern of tire failures. The next year, the company changed the tire formula. At Thursday’s hearing, congressional investigators are expected to ask Firestone to explain the change.
Firestone spokeswoman Chris Karbowiak said she believed the 1996 tests found sidewall failures, not the tread separations highlighted in complaints about the recalled tires.
“This was not a failure that we ever saw in the real world,” Karbowiak said.
In the 1996 tests, eight of 18 sample tires of the type subsequently recalled failed high-speed durability tests. Seven of the eight failed tires were from Firestone’s Decatur plant, now identified as the source of problems in one of the lines of recalled tires.
Investigators also want to see Ford testing data from 1989, before the Explorer was launched. The company tested the vehicle with various tires for a tendency to roll over during sharp, high-speed turns.
Congressional MissionFord officials says they cannot find the 1989 test documents. However, in a sworn affadavit, a former engineer says tires on Explorers were tested at the recommended pressure in high speed tests. The tires, he said, ran for 200 miles at 90 miles an hour.
The Wall Street Journal reported today that Ford documents say the Explorer was designed with a very small safety margin as to how tire issues could cause the vehicle to roll over. The paper said Explorers are three times as likely to roll over when tire treads come off as other Ford vehicles with the same tires.
Ford says some tires were worse than others, and most of the worst went to Explorers.
McCain said his bill was “an imperfect piece of legislation” but added that because of the rising death toll attributed to Firestone tires is important for Congress to act. Congress recesses for the year next month, and for the bill to become law, it must be passed by Senate and House committees and also by full floor votes of both bodies.
“There are some differences that we may have, particularly as far as criminal penalties,” McCain said, adding there is a “strong possibility that we could get some action before Congress goes out of session.”
New Problem For Ford?Ford may also face new non tire-related trouble. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said today it is opening an investigation on reports of problems with front suspension systems in its Explorers.
According to NHTSA, there have been 14 customer complaints to Ford about front swaybar links on 1995 and 1996 model Explorers. Swaybars help keep the vehicles level on turns and are vital to spoort utility vehicles, which are more prone to rollover crashes than cars. Ford insists the swaybar problems are not safety-related and that there have been no reports of accidents or injuries.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration now says 103 people died in crashes involving tread separation on Firestone tires between 1992 and 1999. In addition, there were more than 400 injuries and 2,226 complaints. Previously, NHTSA had attributed 88 deaths to the tire problem in those years. Most of those crashes involved Ford Explorers.ABCNEWS’ Lisa Stark, Dennis Powell and The Associated Press contributed to this story.