Firestone faced controversy, Congress two decades ago

WASHINGTON (AP) - The similarities are striking - and scary.

The recent congressional hearings on the Firestone tire recall could have been held 22 years ago. In May and July of 1978, executives from Firestone Tire and Rubber Co. of Akron, Ohio, sat in front of a House subcommittee for four days, defending a first-generation radial tire called the Firestone 500.

Then, as now, the top officers of the company did not admit to a defect in their product, though there were hundreds of complaints about the tire disintegrating on the rim and 41 deaths. Appearing before Rep. John Moss (D-Calif.) they blamed the tires' problems on bad maintenance and underinflation.

Then, as now, members of Congress expressed disbelief and wonderment that the company didn't order a recall sooner. And then, as now, there was testimony about rollovers, improper tire pressure, weak federal tire-testing laws and missed opportunities to head off the problem.

"It's shocking to me they would go through two of these things," said Michael Lemov, who was chief counsel of Moss' Commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigation. "There's no corporate memory or moral suasion from the government. There's probably some of the same people around."

"It just astonishes me beyond my wildest imagination," said Lowell Dodge, who was Moss' special counsel in 1978 and has watched portions of the current round of hearings. "I would have thought Firestone would have learned they have to be very careful how they make these tires. They haven't learned from the first time around."

In this case, Ford Motor Co. is playing a role at least as prominent as Firestone's. In 1978, the Firestone 500s were on the cars of many manufacturers and questions were not being raised about the safety of the vehicles, as they are about the Explorer.

A former National Highway Traffic Safety Administration lawyer, referring to Firestone's near-bankruptcy and tarnished reputation, recalled: "In 1978, the company's defiant approach to stifle the NHTSA investigation led to its downfall."

Firestone went to court to block progress of NHTSA's investigation of the 500 tire. "There was a coverup and there was resistance to giving NHTSA the information" during the Moss hearings, recalled Joan Claybook, who was the safety agency's administrator in 1978 and testified at a Senate hearing last week.

The stonewalling - or "Firestonewalling," as it came to be known around the agency then - piqued the interest of the late Rep. Moss, a consumer-protection hero.

NHTSA officials said the company is cooperating in this case, though they expressed dismay when the company insisted two weeks ago that it didn't need to recall an additional 1.4 million tires. The agency was forced to issue a consumer advisory.