NASHVILLE (July 21, 2006) — Bridgestone/Firestone has announced it will take further steps to ensure that all Firestone ATX, ATX II and Wilderness AT tires recalled in August 2000 are off the road for good.
The Nashville-based tire maker said in a press release it will send letters to current registered owners of Ford Explorer, Mercury Mountaineer and Mazda Navajo sport-utility vehicles about the recall, and also to every Firestone company-owned store and participating authorized Firestone dealers.
The BFS announcement comes a month after Sean Kane, president of Rehoboth, Mass.-based Safety Research & Strategies Inc., wrote the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) asking it to initiate a query regarding the Firestone recall. SRS, Mr. Kane claimed, knew of at least four recent crashes involving Firestone tires that should have been recalled but instead were put into service as spare tires.
BFS noted that during the original recall, more than 6.3 million of the estimated 6.5 million ATX and Wilderness tires still in service were retrieved and removed permanently from service.