Goodyear Tire Failure Cover-Up
Some time ago Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company designed a tire for low speed delivery vehicles, like the kinds you see in town. I expect these tires were designed for UPS or FedEx type delivery trucks. Then, Goodyear marketed this tire to RV manufacturers, whose vehicles routinely travel faster than the local delivery vehicles for much longer periods of time.
According to lawsuits filed by an Alabama family and others, Goodyear has been marketing this tire inappropriately for decades and when accidents happen, they have covered up their dangerous marketing scheme with settlements and protective orders so they can keep doing the same thing – marketing the tire for inappropriate uses on RVs that routinely travel faster than the tire is designed to handle for sustained periods of time. This is all about the money! If its buried with a settlement and a protective order, the consumer never hears about it and the company keeps doing the same thing. Or continues to cover-up their behavior.
Here is the worst part of the story: The Alabama family that filed the lawsuit was returning home from Disney World when front left tire failed due to “Tread Separation.” The vehicle careened across the median, hit two embankments and and came to rest near a rest area entrance. The injuries were horrific! Two of the occupants suffered broken backs and one of the occupants sustained a broken a hip. Luckily, the two children in the vehicle were either uninjured or suffered only minor physical injuries. Sadly, the worst injury was sustained by the driver, the Grandfather on the trip, who suffered a spinal cord injury and was paralyzed for a number of months before he died from complications associated with the injuries caused by the crash. A terribly sad story that appears to have been totally preventable if Goodyear had simply done the right thing!
Unfortunately, this not an uncommon story among American Manufacturers who routinely market products “off label”. Whether its tires or drugs, American companies have a problem lying about their products in order to make more money. Often at the expense of consumer safety.
In this case, the tire in question, a G159 was not suitable for motor homes according to Goodyear’s own research and documentation. But the G159 was still marketed to RV manufacturers who were oblivious to the problem. (I don’t believe RV manufacturers should get off the hook that easily but according to the article linked below, they were not aware of the problem). Goodyear itself stated that 98 reports of injury or death have been made concerning this tire. Experts believe the number of injuries and deaths is likely a lot higher. Many people don’t investigate single vehicle accidents because they assume it was the driver’s fault. This is not always true SEE BELOW!
Simply put, tires, airbags, seat belts, brakes, power steering, axles etc. sometimes fail. These failures could be the cause of the accident or the reason the accident was not survivable. ALWAYS INVESTIGATE!
For a much more detailed extensive look at this tire and Goodyear’s behavior, check out this link from CleveScene.com which is reprinted an article from Japolnik.com who conducted an extensive investigation concerning this tire, Goodyear’s marketing and resulting deaths and injuries.
The Cover-Up is even worse than it sounds. As one person quoted in an article at the Arizona Republic put it:
“Rather, Goodyear chose to ‘run out’ the tire and solve one claim at a time while it employed a national strategy to conceal all critical information from those victimized … Goodyear knew this strategy would cause future deaths and injuries from G159 tread separations.”
Please visit the CleveScene.com article to learn more about Goodyear’s atrocious conduct concerning this tire and their marketing.
With summer coming up, its RV time! If you, a friend or a loved one have an RV, make sure the tires on it are suitable for the vehicle. There are a lot of old tires out there and some are even expired. To learn about expired tires, yes there is such a thing and its serious, check out this link: TireSafetyGroup.com.
Have a safe spring and always feel free to call us if you have a legal question. You don’t have to be hurt to call us!
