In August 2000, Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. (Firestone) announced the recall of 6.5 million tires, reportedly linked with fatal accidents. Most of the accidents involved Ford Explorer sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) equipped with the defective tires. With the initial recall, Firestone announced that the treads on its 15-inch radial ATX, ATX II and Wilderness AT tires were prone to separating and peeling off.

Some experts have suggested that many of the accidents involving the Ford SUVs are at least partially due to the result of design flaws in the SUV vehicles which make the SUVs unreasonably unstable and susceptible to rollovers, especially in the event of a tire blowout or tire tread separation. Ford has denied claims that the accidents involving their Explorer SUVs are due to design defects and maintains that Firestone tires are the sole cause of the accidents. Of the 194 rollovers in the statistics that the NHTSA has compiled, at least 166 involved Explorers and according to the NHTSA, the Ford Explorer was the model in at least 79 of the 88 total fatalities about which the agency has gathered information.

Soon after the initial tire recall, the NHTSA issued the recall of an additional 1.4 million Firestone tires. In early September, the NHTSA issued an advisory in an effort to expand the recall to include another 24 Firestone tire models of various sizes which showed rates of tread separation exceeding those of the recalled tires. This advisory warns against 16-inch and Firehawk tires, as well as tires originally installed on the 1991 Chevrolet Blazer and certain model years of Nissan and Ford light trucks.

In addition to the recalls and advisory statements described above, the NHTSA has initiated an investigation of two models of Firestone Steeltex tires, the R4S and the A/T (an all-terrain tire), found on Ford F250 and F350 pickup trucks, Ford Excursion SUVs, and General Motors Suburbans, Savannas, and Chevrolet Expresses.

ABC News reported that Firestone officials knew as early as 1997 that there were concerns regarding the company's Wilderness tires, but apparently took no action to correct the problems. Additionally documents uncovered by ABC News reveal that Saudi Arabian Ford dealership notified Firestone and urged the tire maker to recall tires fitted on Ford Explorer vehicles. In response, in August 1999, Ford recalled approximately 6,800 tires on Ford Explorers and Mercury Mountaineers in various Middle Eastern nations, but neither Ford nor Firestone informed the U.S. government of the problems. Ford separately announced the recall of over 50,000 new Explorers and Mercury Mountaineers related to tires. The tires involved are Goodyear and Michelin brands.

$149 Million Dollar Bridgestone-Firestone Tire Class Action Settlement Announced

In March 2004, a Texas state court judge approved a $149 million settlement of 30 class-action lawsuits filed on behalf of tire owners against Bridgestone-Firestone North American Tire. The settlement, comes more than three years after the recall of 14.4 million Firestone tires in 2000..

The lawsuits resolved as part of the settlement include those filed by Firestone ATX, ATX II and Wilderness AT customers whose tires were investigated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in 2000. The settlement calls for Firestone to pay an estimated $70 million to replace tires, $41 million to manufacture tires that provide better high speed capacity, $15.5 million on a consumer education and awareness campaign, and $19 million for attorneys fees. Those who are not named in the settlement but owned one of 22 brands of Bridgestone/Firestone tires between 1991 and 2001 may qualify to have their tires replaced. The settlement affects an estimated 60 million tires and 15 million drivers.