Word: tiring
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...sport-utility vehicles regain their reputation? Last week the struggle was taking place in many forms. Ford Motor Co. settled a high profile, megamillion-dollar lawsuit by Donna Bailey, a single mother of two who was paralyzed when the Explorer she was in rolled over after a tire separation on a dry, uncongested highway in Texas. The next day, the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration released "rollover" ratings to help consumers figure out which cars and trucks are more or less prone to do just that. Most cars received top marks on that count...
...tire's flaws have been widely publicized since the recall that began last August. So far, tread separations involving Firestone tires have resulted in 148 deaths in the U.S., some 500 injuries and 275 other lawsuits. The recall stretches beyond the 6.5 million ATX, ATX II and Wilderness AT tires, most of which were made at Firestone's Decatur, Ill., plant. Last week the company called in 8,000 tires made in Mexico...
...until the Donna Bailey case came to light, Firestone drew the lion's share of the blame. Ford executives had hoped their efficient, well-publicized recall efforts and contrite approach to customers would enable them to put the tire crisis behind them, particularly as they prepare to introduce the new, redesigned 2002 Explorer next month. Now it looks very much as if the nation's second largest automaker is about to enter an intense public interrogation over the extent to which flaws in the Explorer's design contributed to deaths and injuries like Bailey...
...Bailey case is important because of the circumstances--a dry road, nobody in the car had been drinking, Bailey was wearing her seat belt, and the vehicle's Firestone tires were not involved in the original recall. Bailey, whose annual medical costs will reach $600,000, is seeking millions in damages from Ford, Firestone and the car dealer for gross negligence and malice. Ford has already settled 25 tire-related injury and death claims. But a flurry of last-minute negotiations last week failed to produce a settlement in the Bailey case. A Ford spokesman says they will...
There's a catch here too. Today's cell-phone radiation standards--the federal limit is 1.6 w/kg--are based on decades-old guidelines that are considered somewhat arbitrary even by those who set them. (Recall how tire-safety standards, set 30 years ago, proved inadequate to protect consumers from the recent Firestone fiasco.) There's not even agreement on how to determine whether a cell phone really lives up to the standards. And while companies possess the technology to lower radiation sharply, they fear that marketing safety forcefully would only cause alarm...