Center for Auto Safety Moves For Access to Safety Data in Tire Case
31 August 2000
Center for Auto Safety Moves For Access to Safety Data in Tire Case
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA--Aug. 30, 2000--Attorneys for the Center for Auto Safety in a case recently filed in federal court in Washington, D.C. against Bridgestone/Firestone, Inc. ("Firestone") and Ford Motor Co. ("Ford") seeking a broad recall of Firestone tires today renewed its request to the federal court in Washington, D.C. to issue a preliminary injunction granting consumers immediate access to safety data relating to Firestone tires and called the court's attention to a just-issued California court decision in a similar case.
The California court decision, Howard v. Ford Motor Co., No. 763785-2 (Cal. Superior Ct. Alameda Cty.), sharply criticizes Ford Motor Co. for engaging in an extraordinary pattern of withholding and manipulating safety data relating to Ford ignition switches. According to the California court, Ford "concealed vital information related to vehicle safety from the consuming public" and "withheld responsive information from NHTSA that it was obligated to divulge." The California court further chastised Ford for a variety of deceptive tactics, including the "manipulation" of safety tests, playing "word games" to throw off government investigators, and using "euphemisms" in a "disingenuous" fashion to conceal the danger posed by its ignition switches. The court held that "Ford's dissimulation reached its nadir in the testimony of Bob Wheaton, Ford's witness designated as most knowledgeable about safety issues when he insisted that `safe is too subjective' and denied knowledge of any `written definition of what safe is within Ford Motor Company.'"
Attorney Michael D. Hausfeld, representing the Center for Auto Safety in the D.C. case and the class of 1.8 million people with defective ignition switches in the California case, stated, "Ford apparently does not know the meaning of the word `safe.'" Hausfeld further stated, "It is vital that American consumers be given immediate access to Ford and Firestone's safety data. That is what we have asked the court for. The decision by the California Superior Court demonstrates a disturbing pattern by Ford of withholding key safety data and manipulating safety tests in a manner that threatens lives. That is unacceptable."
