Questions must be answered about delayed response

08/18/2000

As the investigation continues into why certain models of Firestone tires have shredded at high rates of speed, the lens of 20-20 hindsight undoubtedly will uncover a litany of unheeded warnings.

State Farm says it warned the Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of the potential hazard in 1998. Yet there's no evidence that either the tire maker or the government regulator acted on this information.

Mistakes are made. Tips aren't acted upon. Bureaucracies – government and corporate – get mired in their procedures. But those explanations offer scant reassurance to the millions of owners of the suspect tires, who deserved more forthright and timely responses. The tires already are suspected in at least 62 deaths and 100 injuries, most of them in Texas, California, Florida and Arizona.

State Farm says it sent an e-mail to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in July 1998, highlighting 21 crashes over 61/2 years that the insurer suspected were caused by certain Firestone tires commonly used on sport utility vehicles.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration confirms State Farm's e-mail, but says it didn't have enough information to launch an investigation.

Perhaps a single e-mail isn't sufficient to trigger an alert, but State Farm's report should have constituted enough of a pattern for the agency to have contacted Firestone or enlisted the help of other insurers in tracking tire failures. It's hard to fathom how a warning about a potentially catastrophic safety problem on a style of vehicle that is prone to roll over did not garner the agency's attention.

Along with its tires, consumer confidence in Firestone has been badly shredded. Firestone outlets have been swamped with calls from consumers. However, the company, which has announced a massive recall, concedes it can't produce enough replacement tires to prevent customers from waiting weeks for new tires.

Firestone blames improperly inflated and maintained tires for the blowouts, but it isn't yet clear what the tire maker knew, when it knew it and whether it attempted to cover up a brewing corporate emMakiassment. Firestone has much to explain.

Congress and regulators are planning hearings and investigations, and lawyers are lining up at the courthouse doors intent on getting some answers.

Unfortunately, these questions are being asked at least three years too late.