Tire separation allegedly caused fatal crash
To the list of deadly Chinese imports you can now add tires.
A small Union Twp. (Union County) importer, Foreign Tire Sales Inc., may go out of business as a result of a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration order to recall and replace 450,000 tires its Chinese supplier secretly manufactured without safeguards that prevent tread separation. If they do, thousands of customers will be left to their own devices to replace the potentially deadly tire sets. The tires were sold under the brand names Westlake, Compass, Telluride and YKS.
Associated Press and New York Times stories today detail that suspicions about the tire defects go back to October 2005, and that the manufacturer confirmed to the supplier in October 2006 it had secretly omitted the safeguard.
Yet the importer did not notify the NHTS until June of this year. The agency says it will not assist in the recall.
This is the same sort of issue that caused Firestone to recall and replace 6.5 million tires in 2000, after 271 deaths and hundreds of injuries. The damage to the Firestone brand was so extensive that it was retired and replaced with the Bridgestone label.
So now we have to add faulty radial tires to the list that contains contaminated animal feed, lead paint on toys and poisoned toothpaste.
So goes the globalization of the product chain.
Background --
- Today's ChinaCSR/AP: "American Lawsuit Causes Huge Chinese Tire Recall"
- Today's NY Times story: "Chinese Tires Are Ordered Recalled"
- Consumer Affairs: "Chinese Tires Blamed for Fatal Van Accident"
- Company Profile: "Foreign Tire Sales, Inc."
-- Dan Damon
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