Safety advocates call for broader Firestone recall

WASHINGTON (Aug. 15)—Auto safety advocates and angry consumers are joining together to call for a total recall of all Firestone ATX, ATX II and Wilderness tires, not just those included in the recall Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. announced Aug. 9. Specifically, Public Citizen and Safetyforum.com called for Bridgestone/Firestone to expand the recall to include 16-inch as well as 15-inch tires and Wilderness tires made at facilities other than the firm´s Decatur, Ill., plant. Bridgestone/Firestone has said the incidence of failure has been much higher for Wilderness tires from Decatur, which saw severe labor disputes in the mid-1990s, although the company says it does not yet know the reason for this. Ralph Hoar, director of Safetyforum.com, called the company´s singling out of Decatur "a red herring" and claimed the tread separation problems are inherent in the tire´s design. Regarding Safetyforum.com´s claims, a Bridgestone/Firestone spokeswoman said, "Anyone and any group can make unsubstantiated claims. Our data clearly show that the Wilderness AT tires, with the exception of the 15-inch tire from Decatur, are good and well-produced tires, and even the failure rates for the Decatur tires are not alarmingly high."