Report: Firestone Skips Meeting With Victims

CARACAS, Venezuela--The Associated Press is reporting that Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. refused to attend a government-arranged meeting Wednesday with victims of crashes involving Firestone tire failures on Ford Explorers, saying it “cannot be blamed for the vehicles going out of control.”

The wire service said Ford Motor Co. sent representatives to the meeting, and offered to set up a committee to negotiate compensation for the victims. The AP quoted Ford as saying that it felt “as betrayed as the Venezuelan people” by the Firestone no-show. Ford said Firestone “hid information about tire problems,” the AP reported.

Although summoned by a Venezuelan government agency, Bridgestone/Firestone declined to attend. The AP quoted a Firestone legal director as saying that being at the meeting “would imply an admission of guilt that is not ours.”

Bridgestone/Firestone “has emphatically maintained it has no responsibility” for the crashes invloving the tires, the company said in a letter to the government.

The consumer protection agency’s legal adviser, Steleo Pebreanez, told the AP that the company’s refusal to attend the meeting “implies they have no desire to reach a reconciliation.”

The AP dispatch said the government wants both companies to compensate 104 victims for deaths, injuries and damage to vehicles.