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American Morning

Senate Investigates Ford and Firestone Problems

Aired June 19, 2001 - 09:07   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Ford and Firestone top executives square off today on Capitol Hill. And there will be plenty of finger- pointing as lawmakers try to get to the bottom of who is responsible for tire-related crashes that have left more than 200 people dead.

Our Jeanne Meserve joins us now from Washington. She's got the very latest.

Good morning, Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Leon.

Finger-pointing and perhaps some fireworks.

Joining me now from Capitol Hill is the chairman of the Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Congressman Jim Greenwood, Republican, from the state of Pennsylvania.

Congressman, a spokesman for the committee saying yesterday that it appears that the tires which were used to replace Firestone tires on the Explorers may have a worse safety record. Can you give us some specifics?

REP. JIM GREENWOOD (R), PENNSYLVANIA: Well, it's confusing. When Ford decided to recall 13 million tires, an unprecedented move to recall another company's tire, it decided to recall all of these Wilderness AT tires, even the ones who had a very low claim rate. And they decided to replace them with other tire, some of which actually have slightly higher claim's rate. That means there's been a case where there's a tread separation, there's been an accident, there's been either physical damage to the vehicle and/or to bodily injury to the passengers.

MESERVE: And who made those replacement tires?

GREENWOOD: Well, there are a variety of companies that have made those replacement tires. Certainly Goodyear is the tire of choice for Ford, at this point. We're hoping that the hearing provides some much needed information to the consumer. If you're a family member out there and you're sending your kids off to school in a car that has its - a Ford Explorer that has Wilderness At tires, you want to know should I get these tires changed? If you're driving another kind of vehicle other than a Ford and you have those tires, you want to know the same thing, am I supposed to get my tires changed? So... MESERVE: When you see the replacement tires in some instances having a worse safety record, does it lead you to believe perhaps that the problem is with the Ford Explorer rather than with the tires?

GREENWOOD: I think it's too early to tell that. The Ford Company is taking what I think it thinks is a responsible action to protect its operators. There are statistics that would demonstrate that in many regards that Ford is safer than other vehicles -- comparable vehicles. There are statistics that demonstrate that when a tire blows out on a Ford Explorer it may have a somewhat worse safety record. And we're hoping that the hearing today will shed some light on that and try to help the poor consumer see through this fog of corporate warfare.

MESERVE: Federal investigators now suggesting that they may undertake a formal investigation of the safety record of the Explorer. Is that overdue? Should that have begun sometime ago?

GREENWOOD: Well, the National Highway Transportation Safety Agency has a huge job, and I don't envy them trying to keep up with all of this technical information about tires and cars and rollovers and trucks and so forth, but they have said that they will take a look at the Explorer. Again, try to provide the consumer some useful information.

(CROSSTALK)

MESERVE: Has NHTSA done enough to sort out the competing claims of Ford and Firestone?

GREENWOOD: Well, we don't think that NHTSA has done enough now. And I think at our hearing today we'll be probably pretty tough on NHTSA in terms of what it hasn't done over the course of last year, and we'll probably try to give them some very specific direction as to what we expect from them in the future.

MESERVE: Members of the UAW in Washington today, they're going to have a caravan of Ford Explorers driving through town to show their support for the company. What sort of impact does that kind of demonstration have on you as a lawmaker, if any?

GREENWOOD: I don't think it has much impact on us. We're trying to get to the facts here. We're not trying to deprecate either of the companies. We don't want to make Ford have a hard time. We don't want Firestone to lose sales. We just want to do what's right for the consumers, get to the - to the bottom, give them good solid information upon which they can rely upon and a lot of the rest of it is media circus, frankly.

MESERVE: Congressman Jim Greenwood, thanks so much for joining us from Capitol Hill.

GREENWOOD: My pleasure.

MESERVE: And, Leon, those hearings do get underway next hour. We'll be bringing you more on those I'm sure. Back to you now in Atlanta.

HARRIS: All right, good deal. Thanks, Jeanne, we'll see you then.

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