NHTSA Rejects Firestone Request
For Investigation of Ford Explorer

In a victory for Ford Motor Co. and other auto makers, the Bush administration's top auto safety regulator refused a request by Bridgestone/Firestone North American Tire LLC to open an investigation into whether the Ford Explorer's handling is inherently unsafe.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Administrator Jeffrey Runge rejected arguments by Bridgestone/Firestone that the Explorer was defective because in the event of a sudden tire failure the sport-utility vehicle could oversteer, with the rear end of the vehicle whipping sideways. Most front-wheel-drive cars are designed to understeer in emergency maneuvers, meaning they tend to plow head-first toward the outside of a curve.

"A vehicle cannot be found to contain a safety-related defect under our statute solely because it has not been designed to preclude linear-range oversteer following an unexpected, catastrophic event such as a tread separation," Dr. Runge and associate NHTSA administrator Kenneth N. Weinstein wrote in a memorandum supporting the decision.

The decision is important not just for Ford, but for other car makers that rely heavily on sales of sport-utility vehicles. Ford had argued in filings with the agency that the Explorer's handling, including a tendency to oversteer in certain extreme maneuvers, was similar to other SUVs.

While refusing to pursue an investigation of the Explorer, the NHTSA did caution consumers that "SUVs in general have a greater tendency to roll over during a crash than passenger cars. In 2000, 62% of all SUV fatalities were the result of rollover, compared with 22% for passenger cars."

Sean Kane, a partner in Strategic Safety LLC, a motor-vehicle safety-research firm, said federal laws don't give the NHTSA the authority to effectively eliminate a whole class of vehicles, such as SUVs. The decision "points to the fact that we don't have an adequate stability standard, or don't have a stability standard at all," he said.

Firestone, a U.S. unit of Japanese tire maker Bridgestone Corp., last year sought an investigation by the NHTSA into the handling characteristics of the Explorer in the midst of an investigation into whether millions of Firestone tires mounted on 1990-2001 Explorer models had dangerous design defects.

"NHTSA has made its determination," said Jill Bratina, spokeswoman for Firestone. She declined to comment further.

Ford praised the agency's action. "This is consistent with real-world performance data showing the Explorer to be among the safest of vehicles, and the NHTSA's previous finding that many Firestone Wilderness AT tires built before 1998 contain a safety defect," Sue Cischke, Ford's vice president for environmental and safety engineering said in a statement.

Federal officials have linked 760 crashes, 637 injuries and 271 fatalities to accidents involving sudden tread separations on Firestone tires.

Last May, Ford unilaterally announced that it planned to replace 13 million Firestone tires on Ford vehicles, saying the tires could become prone to tread separation. Firestone rejected Ford's charges, and the two companies began a bitter public feud. More recently, Ford and Bridgestone have been in talks to settle their differences.

Write to Joseph B. White at joseph.white@wsj.com¹ and Stephen Power at stephen.power@wsj.com²

Updated February 13, 2002 12:01 a.m. EST