The tire recalls and tire replacements by Ford Motor Company and Bridgestone/Firestone, Inc. on the Ford Explorer, Mercury Mountaineer, and Mazda Navajo in the summer of 2000 through the first quarter of 2002 are well-known. However, consumers may be unaware that the recalls and replacement campaigns by Ford and Bridgestone/Firestone did not achieve long-term effectiveness in eliminating tire-related deaths in the Ford Explorer fleet.

Based on data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA's) Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), these recalls and replacements were coincident with a sharp decrease in the number of tire-related deaths in crashes of these utility vehicles in 2001 and a further, smaller decrease in 2002. Unfortunately, occupant deaths involving tire failures in fatal crashes of these vehicles began to increase in 2003.

Since the initial public scandal, during the period, April 1, 2002 through December 31, 2008, there were 340 deaths in 277 reported, tire-related, Explorer, Explorer Sport, Mountaineer, and Navajo crashes recorded in FARS. An additional 254 persons were incapacitatingly injured in these fatal crashes; 12,451 premature years of life (before age 70) were lost. Prior to the announcement of the first Firestone recall on August 9, 2000, there had been 173 deaths in reported, tire-related, crashes of these vehicles recorded in the FARS database.

Through the end of 2008, there had been 556 total deaths in reported Ford Explorer, Ford Explorer Sport, Mercury Mountaineer, and Mazda Navajo tire-related crashes recorded in FARS. 531 of these deaths involved rollovers. Tire-related fatalities in the Ford Explorer Sport Trac are not included in these totals.

During the Congressional investigations of the scandal in the summer of 2000, it was known that 101 Firestone tire-related deaths had occurred, largely in the Ford Explorer fleet. This number of deaths was termed "a national tragedy." Regrettably, an additional 340 fatalities following the recalls and large-scale replacements of Firestone tires on the Explorer have drawn no comparable level of attention from the Congress or from NHTSA.

Additional efforts must be made to find effective countermeasures to reduce these deaths and injuries. These efforts should be addressed especially to the Explorer's performance on higher speed roadways to avoid loss of control when a tire failure occurs.

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