It was August 12, 2006. Four young men in a 2000 Chevrolet Express 2500 Cargo Van were headed south on Pennsylvania Route 476 when one of the steel belted radial tires blew out. The van swerved out of control and rolled over, ejecting the three passengers.
Rafael Melo and Claudier Figueiredo were killed; Carlos Souza was critically injured. The driver was less seriously injured.
The tires, sold under the name Compass Telluride, were manufactured by Hangzhou Rubber Company of China and imported by Foreign Tire Sales (FTS) in New Jersey. The cause of the blow out was a tread/belt separation. Further investigation indicated an insufficient or missing gum strip, a safety feature designed to ensure the integrity of the tire belts.
The accident began a chain of events exposing some of the flaws in our safety recall system and adding one more defective product being imported into the United States. Jeffrey Killino, an attorney with Woloshin & Killino, brought an $80 million lawsuit against Hangzhou. FTS was legally responsible for mounting a major product recall without the funds to support it and with little recourse to force the manufacturer to foot the bill.
Just seven years before this incident, Ford Motor Company and Firestone were embroiled in the issue of tire blow-outs and roll-over accidents responsible for the deaths of at least 270 people and all involving Ford Explorers and Firestone Wilderness ATX tires. In October, 2000, Congress passed the Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability and Documentation (TREAD) Act designed to set up an early warning system of reports from the industry identifying consumer complaints. The glitch in the system was simple: Melo, Figueiredo, Souza and no other American consumer could access that information.
If you have been involved in a tire-related accident, contact us using the form on the right and we’ll help you locate an attorney.
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