Attorneys of Record for
Tires

Taras Kick
The Kick Law Firm
660 South Figeroa Street
Suite 1800
Los Angeles, CA 90017
213-624-1588
217-624-1589 fax
taras@kicklawfirm.com
kicklawfirm.com

C. Tab Turner
Turner & Associates, PA
4705 Somers Avenue, Suite 100
North Little Rock, AR 72116
501-791-2277
501-791-1251 fax
tab@tturner.com
tturner.com

Safetyforum.com Analysis
Ford Explorers Roll Over 4 Times More Often
Than Other SUV's When Tires Fail

MAY 21 -- When tires fail on Ford Explorers the results are four times more likely to produce a catastrophic rollover than when tires fail on other SUV's, according to a Safetyforum.com analysis of more than 3,500 reported tire failures in the government's Firestone tire investigation database.

The analysis of NHTSA's database focused on 3,533 reports that identify the make and model of the vehicle on which Firestone tires failed.   The analysis reveals that 2,450 tire failures on Ford Explorers produced 306 rollovers, a rollover-to-tire-failure rate of 13 percent.  Other Ford SUV's and light trucks had a rollover-to-tire-failure rate of 5 percent (507 failures produced 24 rollovers).  All other SUV's and light trucks had a rollover-to-tire-failure rate of only 3 percent (416 failures produced 12 rollovers).  All other vehicles, primarily automobiles, had a  rollover-to-tire-failure rate of 2 percent (160 failures produced four rollovers).

"Tires fail all the time.  That's why every car comes with a spare tire," said Tab Turner, a Little Rock, Arkansas attorney who has been in the forefront of revealing that Firestone Wilderness AT tires on Ford Explorers are an unusually lethal combination.  "This analysis shows that rollover crashes and their often fatal results need not be the result or a tire failure, if the tires are on a vehicle that is appropriately stable.  The Ford Explorer is obviously not such a vehicle," Turner said.  Turner is Safetyforum.com's "Attorney of Record" for matters related to tires and vehicle stability.

A New York Times report last week claimed that Ford analysts have discovered that Firestone tires, other than those recalled last year, have an abnormally high failure rate.  The report set off a new round of bickering between Ford and Firestone about who is most to blame.  The Safetyforum.com analysis of NHTSA's database, tends to support Firestone's position that the consequences of tire failure have more to do with the vehicle than with the tire considered in isolation. 

NHTSA's Firestone tire defect investigation database contains failure reports about a number of different Firestone tire models and sizes.  A meaningful statistical analysis of those failures is not possible without production figures, which are not publicly available.  However, it is possible to determine from the database the rollover rate of various vehicles when their tires fail.  The Safetyforum.com analysis did not take into account the tire model, only whether a rollover occurred when a tire failed. 

(05/21/01)