Word: decatur
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...voluntary recall has so far replaced only close to 2 million of the 6.5 million defective tires that it believes are out there. There may be more. Just as Americans started their Labor Day weekend getaways, NHTSA warned that an additional 1.4 million Firestone tires--manufactured primarily at the Decatur, Ill., plant, where most of the recalled tires were made--may be even more susceptible to the same kind of deadly tread separation. Most of the tires were sold as replacements for some Ford, Chevy and Nissan SUVs, though many were probably scrapped a long time...
...deaths in Saudi Arabia and surrounding gulf states to some of the tires Ford quietly replaced there in the summer of 1999. The company says it knows of no such deaths. Firestone says it wasn't aware of a noticeable rise in claims for tires coming out of its Decatur plant until Ford did a sophisticated computer analysis in late July. However, according to testimony given by one of its former employees late last year, the company did its own regular quarterly analysis of adjustment data, plant by plant, every few months. And though NHTSA began its investigation...
Also disturbing is the fact that one of the most important parts of the tiremaking process may have been compromised at the Decatur plant. Ex-employees, dismissed by Firestone as disgruntled, have recently testified in court that the facility was suffering from various quality-control problems in the mid-'90s. A former production worker there tells TIME that around 1993 supervisors implemented a policy that shortened the time spent curing, or cooking, the tires--when the different layers are bonded together under intense heat--from 26 to 16 minutes. Firestone did not return calls for comment...
...companies, for instance, are continuing to deal with the recent revelation that State Farm, the nation's largest car insurer, alerted the government and Firestone to an unusually large number of claims for the bad tires as far back as 1997. And on Wednesday, former workers at Firestone's Decatur, Ill., plant, who were replaced by non-union workers during a 1994-96 strike, gave depositions that their supervisors had put quantity ahead of quality. Many of the suspect tires were made there. Firestone says those testifying are disgruntled employees. Also, attorneys want the recall to be widened to include...
...Strike ends. Workers from the Bridgestone/Firestone plant in Decatur later testify that several aspects of the process inside the plant have changed...