|
FIRESTONE SPEEDS UP PACE OF RECALL;
TIRES BEING AIRLIFTED FROM JAPAN
NASHVILLE, August 22, 2000
-- Tires being airlifted from Bridgestone
Corporation manufacturing plants in Japan will help Firestone
accelerate its delivery of replacement tires for consumers in
the United States.
The first shipment of new replacement
tires will leave on a Thai Airways flight from Japan Wednesday
and at least 10 more flights are planned between Wednesday and
Sunday. These shipments will continue nearly every day as long
as needed to assist consumers involved with the recall. The
company also announced Monday that more than 560,000 recalled
tires had been replaced by this past weekend.
"Added to the major production increase
already being implemented in the United States, this airlift
reinforces our efforts to get replacement tires to our customers
through company-owned Firestone Tire and Service Centers or
authorized participating Bridgestone/Firestone retailers,"
said Masatoshi Ono, chief executive officer, Bridgestone/Firestone
Inc. More than 13,000 authorized participating retailers are
involved in the replacement process, along with thousands of
other tire manufacturers' retail outlets.
"We previously said we would complete
this recall by spring. But we are not satisfied with that.
With this assistance from our parent company, our own stepped-up
production in the U.S. and the support of other tire manufacturers
as well as Ford, we are confident that we can beat that schedule,"
Ono said.
Firestone announced August 9 a voluntary
safety recall of all Firestone Radial ATX and Radial ATX II
tires in size P235/75R15 produced in North America, and Wilderness
AT tires in size P235/75R15 produced at the Decatur, Illinois
plant.
|
