Kaizaki based remarks on Japanese team´s finding, Bridgestone/Firestone says

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Oct. 24)—The interim report from a team of Bridgestone Corp. investigators from Tokyo sparked Bridgestone Chairman Yoichiro Kaizaki´s comments that there were no major development or production problems with Firestone tires, according to a spokeswoman for Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. Earlier, the Nashville unit believed the interim report by University of California professor Sanjay Govindjee was the source of Kaizaki´s Tokyo remarks, but that was before company officials received a translation. The Bridgestone team toured several Bridgestone/Firestone plants in North America to discover the root cause of tread separations in some of 6.5 million recalled Firestone ATX and Wilderness AT tires, the spokeswoman said. She did not immediately know if Bridgestone was making copies of the interim report public.