Tire Recall

5 Pages 1195 Words

The Firestone Tire Recall

Even after 88 deaths and 250 injuries attributed to defective Firestone’s tires, Firestone and Ford continue to point their finger at each other and refuse to be held liable. The question now is who is going to be held accountable and whether or not either company knew of the problems with the faulty tires even before it started to create this many issues. This liability issue has created one of the largest tire recalls ever and Firestone and Ford are being accused of knowing about the faulty tires.
In his article in September’s edition of Newsweek, Kevin Naughton writes about what has become one of the biggest tire recalls ever. He tells a story about Lori Laurus who, on Labor Day 1986, had her Firestone tire shred off her Ford Explorer causing her sports utility vehicle to flip. According to Naughton, Ms. Laurus is disgusted with both Firestone and Ford for not immediately looking into the defective tire issue. Along with many others, she believes that Firestone and Ford have known about these defective tires for years now.
According to Naughton, Firestone and Ford have started some damage control procedures by recalling 6.5 million defective Firestone ATX and Wilderness tires found primarily on Ford Explorers. Federal regulators suspect that these defective tires have led to deaths of 88 individuals in the US. Naughton also mentions that criminal charges are being considered against both companies in Venezuela. Regulators there accuse Firestone and Ford of “a conspiracy against the users of Ford Explorers” resulting in at least 46 deaths in Venezuela. According to Naughton, Ford did replace faulty Firestone tires in Venezuela months before the recall was announced in the US. His article also goes into detail about how many believe the companies have known about the faulty tires for years. Documents have been found showing reimbursement by Firestone to some consumers for the faulty ATX tires dat...