Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration announced a recall of 127,183 Firestone FR380 tires manufactured by Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, LLC. The tires, size P235/75R15, were made between September 9, 2007 through July 2, 2008.

According to the NHTSA, the defective tires have an insufficient tread base gauge, which can cause vibration and groove cracking. Consumers who continue to drive with the tires may notice tread separation and distortion, which can lead to tire failure and cause the driver to lose control of the vehicle.

Bridgestone is currently notifying its customers of the recall by mail. The company will replace, mount, and balance the defective tires free of charge. Anyone who suspects they own one or more of the defective tires should contact Bridgestone by calling 1-800-465-1904. Information about the tires from Bridgestone is available by going to the company’s website.

In October of last year, the federal government and Bridgestone announced a safety recall of 160,000 Firestone tires because of potential hazards also stemming from insufficient tread base gauge.

In 2000, Bridgestone issued the largest tire recall in history – a multi-billion-dollar recall of 6.5 million Firestone Wilderness AT tires mounted primarily on Ford Explorers, a vehicle that is prone to roll over after a tire blowout. The next day, Ford announced a recall of 13 million more defective Firestone tires that Bridgestone refused to recall.

The defective Firestone tires recalled in 2000 led to 174 deaths and at least 700 injuries, many of which were catastrophic.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 at 8:13 am and is filed under News, automobile accident, product liability, recalled products, rollover accident, safety. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.