Tire firm declines to comment on death of Balch Springs man

08/17/2000

By Rick Klein / The Dallas Morning News

The way Wayne King sees it, last week's massive recall of Firestone tires came about 72 hours too late to save his son.

While Mr. King's wife, two sons and the older son's girlfriend were traveling to Grapevine Mills mall the afternoon of Aug. 6, the left rear tire on his 19-year-old's Ford Explorer came apart, police said. The car flipped over several times, throwing three of the passengers from the vehicle.

Jeremy King, the driver, died early Wednesday after spending nine days at Parkland Memorial Hospital. The tire that blew out was one of the models recalled by Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. last week – three days after the accident, said Capt. Wade Goolsby, who oversees the Coppell Police Department's traffic division.

Wayne King said the tires on his son's 1998 Explorer had been checked and rotated two weeks earlier.

"I'd have replaced them in a minute if I knew there were problems," he said.

Authorities can't say for sure whether defective tires caused the accident. Bridgestone/Firestone has not accepted liability for crashes involving tire blowouts; company officials said they started the recall to strengthen customer confidence in their products.

A Ford official said she was not familiar with the details of the Kings' crash but expressed sympathies to the family.

"Ford Motor Co. is very concerned whenever an accident occurs with one of our vehicles," said Susan Krusel, a Ford spokeswoman. "We are working around the clock with Firestone to get this issue resolved for our customers."

Walt Sharp, a Bridgestone/Firestone spokesman, said the company would not comment on Mr. King's death.

"Any deaths are very unfortunate," Mr. Sharp said. "But we're not commenting on any lawsuits or potential lawsuits."

Representatives of Bridgestone/Firestone and Ford say they don't know what problems, if any, exist with the design or manufacture of the recalled tires. The companies and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are investigating reports of blowouts.

Capt. Goolsby said investigators haven't pinpointed a reason that Jeremy King's tire blew out. But Coppell police think the tire came apart in a manner consistent with what has been described in complaints that have poured into the safety administration, he said.

"From what witnesses said, it looked like the tread came off the tire, causing it to go flat," he said. "There was no indication that they had hit anything in the road, that there was anything that caused this to happen."

Safety administration officials said this week that the agency was investigating 62 deaths and 100 injuries reportedly related to Firestone tire failures. The agency has received more than 750 complaints of tire failures, according to a spokeswoman, Liz Neblett.

The complaints allege that treads are peeling away from the inner portion of tires while vehicles were traveling at high speeds. Most of the tires affected by the recall are on Ford models, including the Explorer.

Wayne King said his son was traveling about 70 mph when his tire blew out on westbound Interstate 635 between Freeport Parkway and Royal Lane. Police said the Explorer rolled over several times after Jeremy King lost control and left the roadway.

Jeremy King, who lived in Balch Springs, was in a coma for two days after the accident and suffered severe spinal cord injuries, said J.K. Ivey, a Dallas attorney hired by the King family. His lungs failed about 1 a.m. Wednesday at Parkland, where he had been since the accident.

His brother, 15-year-old Brandon King, and their mother, Karen King, 47, of Kaufman, sustained less serious injuries and have since been released from the hospital, Wayne King said. Jeremy King's girlfriend, 19-year-old Rachel Riggs of Midland, remained at Parkland on Wednesday in good condition.

Jeremy and Brandon King and Ms. Riggs – who were ejected from the vehicle – were not wearing seat belts, police said.

Bridgestone/Firestone's recall covers 6.5 million tires on light trucks and sport utility vehicles. The company said the recall is concentrating initially on four warm-weather states – Texas, Arizona, California and Florida – from which the most complaints have come. Bridgestone/Firestone announced Wednesday that it had already replaced more than 200,000 tires.

Ford has told almost 3,000 dealers not to wait for Bridgestone/Firestone's recall, which the company is stretching out over a year. The automaker has authorized its dealers to replace tires immediately with models from Firestone competitors, including Goodyear, General, Michelin and Uniroyal.

But the recall has little meaning for those who have already been involved in an accident, Wayne King said. His son, a 1999 Crandall High School graduate, was scheduled to attend Trinity Valley Junior College this fall and had just accepted a new job at Texas Instruments in Richardson.

"He was a good kid. He'd do anything for anybody," he said. "We've taken it hard."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.