Safetyforum.com Reports: Firestone Executive Sheds New Light On Why Decatur Tires Seem to Fail More Often
4 December 2000
Safetyforum.com Reports: Firestone Executive Sheds New Light On Why Decatur Tires Seem to Fail More Often
ARLINGTON, Va., Dec. 4 Firestone tires made in Decatur
appear to have higher failure rates than tires made at Firestone's other
plants because most of them were on Ford Explorers distributed in the
southeast and southwest parts of the U.S., according to testimony of Robert
Martin, a Firestone vice president of Quality Assurance who retired earlier
this year.
Overwhelming reports of tire failure in the southeast and southwest
prompted Firestone and Ford to recall 6.5 million tires in August of this
year. The recall was limited to include only 15-inch Wilderness tires made in
Decatur and 15-inch ATX and ATX II tires.
"Mr. Martin's testimony is the first time that a representative of either
Ford or Firestone has publicly admitted that blaming all the bad tires on the
Decatur plant is unfounded. As we have insisted from the outset, Wilderness
tires -- regardless of plant origin -- are all of the same design, all made
the same way, and all suffer from the same defect. Telling the American
public that it's safe to ride on these tires is wrong, misleading and
irresponsible," said Little Rock, Arkansas attorney Tab Turner. Turner is
Safetyforum.com's "Attorney of Record" for tires and participated in the
deposition taken in Nashville.
Turner emphasized that his words of caution apply even to replacement
Firestone Wilderness tires installed during Firestone's recall. Firestone
recently announced that it is nearing completion of its recall. "All they've
done is given people a false sense of safety and security. All of these tires
are defective, regardless of size, age or plant origin," Turner said.
A Safetyforum.com review of 80 lawsuits for which the source plants for
both the tires and vehicles are known, tends to confirm Martin's testimony.
Virtually all of the lawsuits are in hot southern or western states. About
one third of the vehicles were Explorers made in St. Louis. Decatur tires
were on 83 percent of those vehicles. Only 42 percent of the Explorers from
Louisville had tires from Decatur. The Washington Post reported this Friday
that a Ford spokesman "confirmed that officials in the truck division thought
that generally most of the Explorers built in (St. Louis) went to the west,
while Louisville, Kentucky-built Explorers went to the East."
Firestone's Martin, who retired in April of this year, explained during a
recent deposition that the impression that Decatur is the source of most
defective Wilderness tires is a statistical aberration. He attributed the
over representation of Decatur tires to Firestone and Ford's distribution
patterns. Most of the Decatur tires were shipped to Ford's Explorer plant in
St. Louis, Missouri. Most Explorers made in St. Louis are shipped to the
southeast and southwest where extreme heat hastens the tires' deterioration.
Martin testified that, "There are two plants that built Explorer vehicles.
One is in Louisville and one is in St. Louis. And from a sheer logistics
point of view, the Decatur tires would go to the St. Louis-built vehicles more
so than Louisville and those vehicles more so would go west and south." When
asked to explain why there appeared to be a higher percentage of failures
coming out of the Decatur plant as opposed to the other plants, Martin
responded, "I believe I answered that previously. About what would cause it
... I talked about distribution, the assembly plants that were provided by our
company. Decatur to St. Louis, Wilson to Louisville, distribution of those
vehicles to the Southwest, Southeast."
Turner reiterated, "We have contended from the outset that the public
needs to know this type of information in order to make an informed decision
about whether families should be using Wilderness AT tires on any vehicle
regardless of the plant of origin or whether they were original or replacement
tires installed during the recall. Telling the public that its safe to
continue to carry families on these tires so long as they did not come from
Decatur is simply irresponsible conduct."
CONTACT: Tab Turner of Little Rock Arkansas, 501-791-2277; or Ralph Hoar
for Safetyforum.com, 703-469-3700.