Lisoni to file further complaints against BFS

WASHINGTON (Nov. 25)—Pasadena, Calif.-based plaintiffs´ attorney Joseph L. Lisoni plans in January to file a second petition to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, seeking a defect investigation of Firestone Steeltex light truck tires. Lisoni said he will concentrate in the new petition on Steeltex tires´ performance on ambulances, adding he had affidavits of Steeltex failures on ambulances in 33 states. He also got the California Superior Court in Indio, Calif.—where his class action lawsuit seeking the recall of 30 million Steeltex tires is filed—to schedule a Dec. 31 hearing on his charges that Bridgestone/Firestone destroyed Steeltex tires that were supposed to be stored as evidence in the suit. A BFS spokesman called Lisoni´s charges of destruction of evidence "unfounded" and "malicious." As for the new NHTSA petition, the spokesman noted that Lisoni´s previous petition and an earlier investigation gave the Steeltex a clean bill of health. "All of the evidence related to the Steeltex tells the same story—the tire is performing very well in the field, and NHTSA twice found no defect trend," he said.