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Attorneys of Record for
Taras Kick
C. Tab Turner
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SAFETYFORUM.COM:
JULY 24 -- Catastrophic
tire failures on Ford's popular Explorer SUV's and a rapidly mounting
number of deaths and injuries is leading to growing concern at NHTSA
and a rash of law suits around the country.
Ford is so swamped
by litigation brought on by tread separation on Firestone ATX and
Firestone Wilderness tires that it told NHTSA that it needs more than
six months to respond fully to points the agency raised in a May 8
defect investigation letter. The automaker made the unusual request
because it has "identified over 500 potentially related lawsuit and
claim files" responsive to the agency's investigation, Ford said in a
letter that NHTSA recently released.
When NHTSA opened its
investigation in May, it had 90 complaints involving 33 crashes that
had produced 27 injuries and four deaths. During the intervening months
those numbers have skyrocketed. One NHTSA official acknowledged the
agency is investigating 11 deaths in Florida. Another official told
safetyforum.com that there are "even more in Texas." According to NHTSA
documents, almost half of the complaints it has are from Texas "with
over 80% of the balance" involving other southern states, implying that
the tires are more prone to fail when they are hot.
Ford put the
tires on millions of Explorer, Ranger and F150 vehicles. Most of the
failures reported to NHTSA have been original equipment tires, some
were replacement tires.
For the most part, mainstream media have
ignored the story. There are reports that several broadcast news
magazines are "poking around." Well ahead of the pack is Miami's crack
consumer correspondent Al Sunshine, who began reporting a rash of
Florida crashes July 17, 2000.
(07/24/00)
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