One of the most notorious cases involving customer and automobile safety in recent years is the recall of over 6.5 million Firestone tires. The vast majority of complaints involved the Ford Explorer, although the tires were used on several other vehicles. Vehicle accidents caused by tread separation, blowouts, and other failures, usually resulting in roll-overs, involving these Firestone tires have resulted in 174 deaths, over 700 injuries and 6000 complaints. Firestone announced the voluntary tire recall on August 9, 2001, the result of pressure put on Ford and Firestone by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) due to a high volume of complaints. Although there is evidence of faults by both Ford and Firestone, each company blamed the other for the accidents and the high number of deaths and injuries. The evidence shows that both Ford and Firestone knew about faulty tires for over 4 years, but both will only acknowledge discussing tire problems up to two years before the recall, and Firestone has been involved in lawsuits involving the ATX tires since 1989. The way Firestone and Ford have acted in ensuring the public safety, and the supervision and regulation provided by the NHTSA have all been questioned as a result of the large number of accidents.
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