Safety groups assail Goodyear Load Range E campaign

WASHINGTON (Feb. 6)—Goodyear's plan to replace 200,000 Load Range E tires will leave as many as 21 million defective tires on the road, according to various Washington-based safety watchdog groups. The replacement program is not an acceptable substitute for a formal safety recall of all of the defective Load Range E tires, Lee Jones, executive director of plaintiff attorney Web site Safetyforum.com, said in a news release. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, however, "couldn't disagree more" with the safety groups. "The program Goodyear is planning to do will answer all our predominant safety concerns," said a spokesman for NHTSA, which plans to end soon its preliminary evaluation of the tires.