5 in bay area sue over Firestone tires

By ANITA KUMAR

© St. Petersburg Times, published September 15, 2000

CLEARWATER -- Five Tampa Bay area residents are suing the makers of Firestone tires and Ford Motor Co., asking for an expanded recall of tires and for payments to those who have defective tires not covered in the nationwide recall.

The group asked a judge to declare the suit a class action in which customers throughout the nation could join if they purchased defective Firestone 15-inch ATX and ATX II tires manufactured in North America or 15-inch Wilderness AT tires manufactured at the company's Decatur, Ill., plant. More than 6-million of those tires have been recalled.

But the suit goes a step further, seeking payments to people who owned other Firestone tires that are not now part of the recall. Those tires include 16-inch models of the Wilderness AT, radial ATX and ATX II, regardless of where they were manufactured.

The suit wants payments for anyone who replaced those tires at their own expense after learning of the recall of the other models.

"Consumers who desire a fully functional and safe tire have thus been left with no choice but to purchase replacement sets on their own," according to the suit.

Since Aug. 9, almost 8-million Firestone tires used on sport utility vehicles and light trucks have been recalled. Officials with Bridgestone/Firestone apologized to the American public and vowed to find the cause of the problem. Federal investigators are looking into what role, if any, the tires had in 88 deaths and more than 250 injuries.

They are trying to sort out what caused accidents in which Firestone tires suddenly lost their tread or suffered blowouts. They are looking into the combination of flawed tires and the design of sport utility vehicles.

National reports indicate the company had data indicating problems years before the recall. A tire recall began in 16 other countries more than a year ago, but U.S. authorities were not notified.

The suit, filed Wednesday in Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court, was filed by Donna and Ralph Cordasco of Gulfport, E. Frank Griswold of Lutz, and John V. Monsour and Richard H. Sollner, both of Tampa. Their attorney, Chris Hoyer, could not be reached.

The suit claims that the tires are defective and that the companies acted negligently, breached expressed or implied warranties and violated the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.

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