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Firestone calls Explorer 'uncontrollable'

Dolphan

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08/13/2001 - Updated 09:33 PM ET

Firestone attorney says tiremaker not at fault

By Earle Eldridge, USA TODAY

During opening arguments in a Texas lawsuit, lawyers for Bridgestone/Firestone put the blame squarely on the Ford Explorer for a tire failure accident that injured four people, putting one in a wheelchair. It is the first lawsuit related to tread separation failures of Firestone tires to go to trial. It could affect outcomes in hundreds of cases still pending against Bridgestone/Firestone and Ford Motor.
It also is the latest battleground in the increasingly hostile fight between Bridgestone/Firestone and Ford over responsibility for accidents resulting from the tire failures, most of which involved Explorer sport-utility vehicles that rolled over. The tires have been linked to 203 deaths and more than 700 injuries.

Knox Nunnally, an attorney for Bridgestone/Firestone, told a jury in a McAllen, Texas, federal courtroom that "there are many reasons for a tire to lose its tread, just as there are many possible causes, or combination of causes, for vehicle accidents."

Dr. Joel Rodriguez, his wife, Marisa, and two other family members were in Rodriguez's 1998 Ford Explorer on a Mexican highway last year when a Firestone Wilderness AT tire failed, and the SUV rolled.

Marisa Rodriguez will have to use a wheelchair the rest of her life. The family wants $1 billion in damages.

The tiremaker has been paying some of Marisa Rodriguez's medical expenses since the accident.

"The Rodriguez family was struck by a terrible tragedy, and we are saddened and concerned that our tires were involved," Nunnally said. But, he added: "The tragic consequences were also caused by a fundamental design defect in the Ford Explorer."

Ford Motor reached a settlement with the Rodriguez family, and the family dropped the automaker from the lawsuit, so Ford will not be in court to defend the Explorer. But Ford has said repeatedly that the Explorer does not have any design defect that would cause it to roll over when a tire fails.

Tab Turner, an attorney for the Rodriguez family, told the jury that Bridgestone/Firestone knew the Wilderness tires were defective and that it is not taking responsibility for selling and marketing faulty tires.

Attorneys for the family say they also want Bridgestone/Firestone to broaden its recall. Bridgestone/Firestone recalled 6.5 million ATX and Wilderness AT tires last year, most of which were on Explorers. Ford began replacing an additional 13 million Wilderness AT tires in May despite strong objections from Bridgestone/Firestone that the tires are not defective.

Bridgestone/Firestone has settled more than 200 lawsuits before trial. Spokeswoman Jill Bratina says the tiremaker is open to a settlement in the Rodriguez case if it "is fair and equitable to all parties."

Contributing: The Associated Press
 



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I hope they get their money, all of it, from whoever has to pay.

I still think Ford and Firestone were in bed together about this whole deal.
 






So they say the Explorer is uncontrollable. I watched the movie "Nine Months" (chick flik) last night with my wife and there was a scene towards the end where they are driving in the family car to the hospital. The main character sold his Porche to buy a family car, a 95+ Explorer. The drive to the hospital, as usual in films, is over-dramatic. They were doing high speed right hand turns fast enough to lift the right front wheel while sliding and 6 people in the car. There was also panic braking locking up all four tires. Anyway, it appeared to me that with 4 good tires the Explorer can be very controllable. Maybe there were mods made to this Explorer, the ground was wet, and was driven by a stunt driver, but in any case, the vehicle seemed to handle fine with no sign of rollover possibility even when the tire lifted. I believe it was an Eddie Bauer so it had the 16in wider tires.

Regarding the in bed statement, it has always made me curious as to why Ford used Goodyear tires all of a sudden for the years 95 to 97 along with the replacement for the Firestone ATX the Wilderness AT. Was Ford not convinced that the new Wilderness AT was good enough for the Explorer? Did they not want to hurt Firestones feelings by using only Goodyears? Its funny how the comparision between Firestone and Goodyear in those years were pretty equal in quantities used. Were they using the consumer as test rats to determine quality?:eek:

Sorry for the rant, but I feel much better now.
 






wow they say the explorer is uncontrollable! They've sure got my vehicle pegged to a T! That thing wobbles all over, makes all kinds of weird squeaks, etc... although, I'm not exactly running stock suspension either... LOL
 






if it is so uncontrollable, how come when car and driver bought a used 1994 explorer and rigged the tire to deflate none of there guys rolled it? all suvs are high center of gravity and most even have stickers (mine does on the visor) that basically says: " if your stupid butt drives this truck like a race car, your going to end up hurt or dead."
 






My owner's manual has a statement that reads

"Ok jackass, listen up. This is a truck, not a car. Do not drive it like a car or your skinny ass will get killed. Drive it like a truck, don't hotrod around. And keep your toes off the floorboard."

But there are some crazy folk in this world. :smoke:
 






mine was the nice version.... and i have a big butt... i wish i was skinny
 






I also saw a test on some show on Tv. the other week where they rigged up tires to blow out on the explorer and none of the drivers rolled the vehichle. They did it on all 4 tires, even doing more than one at once, never rolling it. One thing I did notice about all the accidents involving these tires was that the majority of rollovers had women driving the vehicle. I was just wondering if anyone else noticed this? Maybe some of them were putting on makeup when it happened and not holding the wheel or somethin' ? Hey, its possible....


I did NOT mean for this to offend anyone, if I did I am sorry.
 






Actually i had to write a paper on something and i was trying to find some kind of stats about explorer rollovers and the percentage of women driving vs. men driving when the accident occured. I was unsuccessful in finding any kind of surveys but i am almost positive that there are more women than men that roll over there explorers.
I am not meaning to sound sexist either and i hope that no women here take offence to that. I know there are professional female drivers that could probably drive circles around me but an average man seems to have more control over his vehicle than a woman. After all 90% of men were in the parking lots when they were 16 doing doughnuts and pullin the e-brake around corners so they generally know how their vehicles will react in certain situations and how to control something that is out of control.
 






Marisa Rodriguez will have to use a wheelchair the rest of her life. The family wants $1 billion in damages.

Damn!!!! What the hell is this world coming to? I should've sued the Highway department when I crashed because they made the highway! WTF is this family thinking? That because of their carelessness and crappy driving they deserve a reward. Sure the lady got hurt, but could it have been avoided? I bet it could! I have watched the car and driver reports and I don't see what the big deal is. Maybe I am a callouse ass or something but this family deserves NOTHING!

There is NO law in the US that says you have the RIGHT to drive. Therefore they knew that there would be a risk involved and this was it. SUVS are not hotrods and should not be treated as such.

Growing up driving NOTHING but trucks, vans, suvs I guess I don't understand why others cannot adjust to the way they handle. I drove a car for nearly 8-9 months and I can tell the way it handles is not the same as the suv!

I do realize having a blowout is uncommon and not the norm, however being the driving is a privilage people should know what to do when it happens. Reading all you can, could help but really probably will not 100% prepare you for what will happen. At least you could be prepared.
 






as usual, I agree with Ryan :). Its just like the guy that won like $3 BILLION from Phillip Morris (I don't think he'll ever see anywhere near that, but still...), he knew the risks, he chose to do so anyways, and now he wants to be set not only for his life, but his kids lifes, and their kids lives, because he was too stupid to know when he took that first puff and coughed up a lung that he was doing something bad.
I think there is no such thing as an accident, because every accident can be avoided, EVERY ACCIDENT. my dad told me that when I got rear-ended in my 92 F-150 after turning 16, at the time it made no sense but now I can say yes, if I wasn't following the car behind me so close I wouldn't have had to slam on my brakes and I wouldn't have been rear-ended. My other accident occured during a blizzard, I slid sideways at a full stop into a car on an embankment. I couldn't stop, couldn't pull forward, couldn't go in reverse, nothing... BUT I could've stayed home from work that day!
I shoulda sued the damn engineer that decided to place the interstate at a bank, which left me no option but to slide sideways into the other vehicle. It was only $500 in damage, but I want 5,000,000 out of it, watch, I'll get it too :)

What the hell happened to the days when people would roll their vehicles, get hurt and say "gosh I should know better then to roll my vehicle now!" now its "this vehicle must've been unsafe, I'm gonna sue em for all they've got!"
 






just like the lady that put mcdonalds coffee in her lap and drove... she got $3 million for that..... now on the windows of the drive through, there are stickers that say: Cuation: coffee and hot chocolate are served very hot!" and the cups also say " caution: hot!"
 






well, as long as there are lawyers like (here in Denver) frank azar, chasing ambulances, promising huge cash rewards for your pain and suffering, these things will continue. Sad really.
 






Originally posted by jimabena74
just like the lady that put mcdonalds coffee in her lap and drove... she got $3 million for that..... now on the windows of the drive through, there are stickers that say: Cuation: coffee and hot chocolate are served very hot!" and the cups also say " caution: hot!"
Actually this was a case of neglegence I think, or something like that. McDonalds had been warned that their coffee could only be like 150 degrees or somthing like that and theirs was reguraly 175+ and they didn't change that, so they in turn got sued because they ignored that one little safety rule. Don't get me wrong I don't think they should've been sued because give me a break, coffee is hot. But if it wasn't 175+ it wouldn't have burned her. I also hope this family doesn't get any money and that they can prove that it's driver error and Ford and Firestone quit taking cheap shots at one another.
 






Big difference in the above mentioned tests and the real accidents. The tests didnt involve TREAD SEPERATION. In the rollover accidents the treads seperated from the tire and wrapped around the axles. This did not happen in the tests.

This is why the accidents arent the Explorer's fault, the tires are fauly causing rollovers...in any vehicle.

I dont understand why everyone is so hard on this family though. THink of it this way, if your Explorer was being driven by your wife/mother/father/son whatever and they were permanantly injured or killed when the FAULTY TIRE shed its tread and the act of it wrapping around the axle caused the truck to flip. Sure we've all survived blowouts and its easy to say "Driver negligence, I wouldnt have let that happen!" but I have a feeling that the number of members on this board have effectlively controlled an Explorer at 70MPH with the tread on the rear tire separated and wrapped around the axle before causing the wheel to drag is MUCH MUCH lower.

If the tire werent faulty, the blowout wouldnt have happened. If the tire had simply lost pressure then perhaps the woman could have controlled it.

The tire has a safety defect that contributed to an accident that permanantly ruined that woman, and that family's life. Firestone knew about the problem, Ford knew about the problem, I say f*ck em for whatever you can get.

As far as the "more women drivers" BS, people need to get over that. Women are just as capable of driving as men are. I have seen many women on tracks that are far superior drivers than most, and I've seen many men on the road who couldnt tell a stop sign from a "speed up and ram me in the bumper!" sign. Makes no difference.

If you look at the statistics for the wrecks, OF COURSE there will be more women drivers than men. More women drive the Explorer than men. 75% of Explorer drivers are women!

Fact is, the tires are bad, its somebody's fault and somebody's gotta pay. Why do you think Firestone is scrambling so hard to put the blame on Ford?
 






:( The thing that sucks about this WHOLE ordeal is all this negative publicity is killing the resell value of my explorer. At least I could pick up a new one fairly cheap, if I wanted to do that...
 






Stephen good points, but those could be carried over to other areas of life. For instance, my Grandma recently passed away. She had a tumor in her stomach. There was nothing the doctors could do, but they tried some stuff anyway. One of the things they tried was chemo. Well in the end thats what killed her, not the tumor. So one could apply the same logic and go sue the doctors. Instead we say she lived a great life and there is no reason to sue the doctors over the fact that something they knew would be VERY harsh on her system killed her.

I see how you could be angry, but not spitefull to go after all that money. She got her medical bills taken care of which is all a company like that should do anyway. I still say lots of things in life are risks and if you can't accept it then fine, your the type that passes blame for things too.

:D Not trying to insult anyone here. :D
 






you also must remember that in the tests the drivers knew that they were going to have a blow out and were prepared. I believe that in the rollovers people are driving with one hand or a knee or something like that. I believe also that heat of the tire from driving too fast for long periods of time in hot climates helps to do stuff to the tire.
 






F'n, yeah tell me about it!

Ryan, but what the doctors did was in the best interest of your Grandmother. I'm sure it was a decision that she, your family, and the doctor's made. The decision to make these tires in an unsafe manner and then attempt to cover up the results, thats just wrong and they need to pay.

This is, she got SOME of her medical bills taken care of. Not all. Do you have any idea what her bills probably come to? At least a Million.

Case in point, I had a 4 way bypass in 1996. I had some complications (coded on the OR table and had to be ressucitated) and ended up being in a coma for 7 days. During that time I was on 24 IV Drips at one point in intensive care, then a week and a half stay at the hospital. Know what my bill was? About $350,000. Now, I have GREAT insurance that paid for every dime, but few Americans have that type of coverage.

THink about if say their insurance paid for half her bills. Thats still $500,000 they have to come up with.

Do you have $500,000 lying around?

At the very least they should pay for ALL expenses so her insurance doesnt have to be used up, she's going to need it the rest of her life.

ok89, The only flaw with that is Ford can say "well you shouldnt be driving like that anyway".......which is true.
 



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See the whole tread wrapping around the axle thing I didn't know about... call me stupid. In that case it's kinda easy to see a roll over happening because you veer off the road and into a softer median and roll. Then I hope she gets a few million, but not a billion be friggen realistic with lawsuits at least. I would spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair if my family could benefit a billion dollars from it.
 






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