U.S.

Feds Investigate More Firestones

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

September 29, 2000 / 6:16 PM EDT / CBS

Federal regulators have opened an investigation into Firestone Steeltex tires, CBS News learned Friday, another blow to a company already reeling from a massive tire recall ordered in August.

CBS News Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is opening a defects investigation into the Steeltex R4S and A/T light truck tires.

The NHTSA is already investigating 47 million of Firestone tires for tread separation problems possibly linked to 101 American traffic deaths and more than 400 injuries.

The tires are original equipment on Ford F250 and F350 pick-up trucks, the Ford Excursion, General Motors Suburban and GM G Van.

The investigation is based on 169 complaints the NHTSA has received since January 1998, of which 167 came in August and September of this year. Drivers reported blowouts, tread separation and other problems.

The earlier Firestone recall of 6.5 million tires was announced in August. The Firestone tires being recalled are all 15-inch P235/75R ATX and ATX II tires and all same-sized Wilderness AT tires made at Firestone's Decatur, Ill., plant.

The NHTSA Notice

A preliminary search of the Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) database revealed that since January 1, 1998, ODI received 169 complaints on Firestone Steeltex tires. Of these, 167 were received in the months of August and September 2000. This search does not include a review of specific vehicle models equipped with Steeltex tires. The majority of the complaints occurred at highway speed and allege a blowout, tread separation of other major failure.

ODI is aware of two Steeltex models, the R4S and at A/T. Both are light truck (LT) radial tires. The R4S is a mud and snow tire and the A/T is an all-terrain tire with an aggressive tread. Both models are available in 15, 16 and 16.5 inch sizes…These tires were original equipment on some light trucks. ODI is aware of tire failure complaints on the Ford F250 and F350 pickup trucks, Ford Excusrsions and General Motors Suburban and General Motors G-Vans. This list is not compete and there may be other models upon which the tires were original equipment.

ODI will conduct a preliminary Evaluation to evaluate the magnitude of this problem.

The complaints concern eight crashes, 12 injuries and two fatalities.

The investigatin grew out of the probe following the earlier recall.

"There is no question that there's heightened awareness about tire problems, but this one rose higher than any of the other makes that we got complaints on," a NHTSA source said.

"This jumped out at us," the source said. "We had to do something."

The probe will try to determine the magnitude of the problem with Steeltex tires.

Firestone said it would fully cooperate with the probe, despite what it called its "limited staff and resources."

The R4S is a mud and snow tire, and the A/T is an all-terrain tire with an aggressive tread. Both models are available in 15-, 16- and 16.5-inch sizes. NHTSA had no estimate of how many of the tires have been produced.

Firestone and Ford have been under intense scrutiny—from U.S. and foreign governments, the press, regulators and each other—since the recall.

After the 6.5 million tires were recalled, Firestone refused the government's request to recall 24 more types of tires, so investigators issued a consumer warning about them.

Evidence then emerged that both companies knew about the tread separation problems long before the recall was ordered.

The two companies soon began to accuse the other of being responsible for the problems that caused treads on the tires to peel away: Ford blamed the tire, Firestone the tire pressure Ford told drivers to use.

In addition to the tires, the recall put the spotlight on other possible problems at Ford. An internal Ford e-mail, produced as evidence in lawsuits against Ford, and obtained by CBS News, shows company engineers were worried about the Ford Explorer passing rollover tests back in 1989.

The New York Times reported that congressional investigators are trying to determine whether a massive cover-up of a faulty ignition part by Ford was part of a broader pattern of misleading regulators.

The image problems for the two companies extend beyond U.S. borders. Saudi Arabian authorities banned the import of vehicles equipped with Firestone tires. In Venezuela, Ford's sales of the Explorer have plunged 37 percent this year amid allegations that design flaws in the sport utility vehicle played a role in at least 46 fatal accidents there.

In remarks to be aired on 60 Minutes Sunday night, Jorge Gonzalez, president of Bridgestone/Firestone in Venezuela, says several factors could have played a role in the accidents.

The Steeltex probe comes as the earlier NHTSA investigation continues.

A team of federal investigators converged on Firestone's Decatur, Ill. plant on Thursday. Both Firestone and Ford claim the plant is the biggest source of bad Firestone tires and Bridgestone, Firestone's Japanese owner, reportedly is considering suspending or ceasing operations at the factory.

But Georgia court documents pint to problems at other facilities, specifically at the tire maker's Wilson, N.C., plant, whose ATX tires showed an unusually high rate of tread separations.