Treading carefully

With the number of tire-related traffic deaths under investigation now nearing 90 in the United States, officials from Bridgestone-Firestone have a clear choice as they provide congressional testimony tomorrow. They can either continue to belittle the comments of former employees, who blame working conditions and lax inspections at two tire-making facilities, or they can take those charges seriously and tell Congress what they know about those plants.

If they keep up the public-relations line about how a few disgruntled former employees are insulting craftsmanship of their former co-workers, they are going to find not only a congressional investigation, but a loss of customers dramatic enough to make the quality question at the plants in Decatur, Ill. and Wilson, N.C., irrelevant. This is, after all, the American Dream under threat: big tires for big vehicles that go fast. The House Commerce Committee will be talking Wednesday about a safety issue, but one that is wrapped in a cultural idea, an idea the automobile industry has spent fortunes to perpetuate and one that the driving public does not want interrupted through inept management.

The charges themselves from the employees sound commonplace: Tire treads separated because inspectors were given too many tires to review, foreign substances – floor dirt, cigarette butts, etc. – found their way into tires, the humidity at the plants caused tires to lose their stickiness, necessitating the use of a benzene-like product to make them sticky again, but also weakening the rubber. The questions around these alleged lapses are equally prosaic. What did officials from Bridgestone-Firestone, or for that matter, Ford Motor Co., know about these problems, if they did exist, when did they know it and what did they do about them.

These are details that officials elsewhere would also like to hear about. Venezuela reports that the faulty tires are suspected in at least 47 deaths when they failed on Ford Explorers. Venezuela’s consumer-protection agency, Indecu, goes further to assert that the Explorer’s design contributed to the failure, which Ford strongly denies. Testimony by Ford officials, also expected tomorrow, should address this accusation.

Unfortunately, the pattern so far in Washington is not promising. Ford and Firestone lobbyists – the tire maker has hired five law firms to help press its case – have already swarmed over Congress to try to limit the damage the hearing might cause their reputations and bank accounts. The lobbying might work for these well-heeled corporations, but just think how easily the lobbying money could have taken care of that humidity problem back in Decatur and Wilson.