At 11:00 am on Wednesday, August 9, 2000, Bridgestone/Firestone (Firestone), the nations second largest tire manufacturer, and Ford announced jointly that Firestone would recall approximately 14.4 million tires that contain a safety-related defect. (Most of the tires in question were original equipment on Ford vehicles, primarily the Ford Explorer, although a small number were used as original equipment on other manufacturers' vehicles, and they have been used as replacement tires on a wide variety of models).1
The recall was a result of 118 United States deaths supposedly due to tire tre…
