Better check your tires if you own a pickup, SUV, etc

Accident Raises
Safety Concerns
On Chinese Tires
Up to 450,000 Imports
May Contain a Defect;
Obstacles to a Recall
By TIMOTHY AEPPEL
June 26, 2007; Page A1

A fatal auto accident in Pennsylvania has stirred concerns about another potentially hazardous Chinese product in wide use in the U.S.: tires.

About 450,000 Chinese-made tires sold in the U.S. -- and possibly many more -- may lack an important safety feature, according to federal regulators and the U.S. distributor that helped design them. But the task of identifying who bought the defective tires and getting them off the road has been complicated by litigation and holes in the nation's product-recall system.

The tire defect comes in the wake of several other high-profile safety problems involving Chinese products, including the discovery of lead paint on children's toys and hazardous materials in Chinese-made toothpaste and in wheat gluten used in pet food.

"As imports grow -- and China is the largest exporter to the U.S. -- it's essential" that all manufacturers comply with U.S. safety regulations, said Daniel Zielinski, a spokesman for the Rubber Manufacturers Association, the tire industry's main trade group.

The tires in question were distributed by Foreign Tire Sales Inc. of Union, N.J., and sold under the brand names Westlake, Telluride, Compass and YKS in a range of sizes used on sport-utility vehicles, pickups and other light trucks. All were sold as replacement tires and not as original equipment on new vehicles.

FTS said an unknown portion of the tires either lacked a safety feature designed to make them more durable or had it in an insufficient degree. The company, which said it doesn't have the money to pay for a recall, estimates the defect could be present in as many as 450,000 tires imported from China's Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co. since 2002. It said it believes other U.S. distributors have been selling virtually identical tires, which could account for as many as an additional half-million tires.

FTS knew about the tire defect, which it reported to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration earlier this month, as early as last year -- when it conducted its own tests in the wake of an accident in New Mexico that didn't result in any serious injuries or deaths.

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11/23/04The fatal wreck occurred last August, when the tread allegedly separated on a steel-belted radial on a cargo van carrying four passengers. The driver lost control and crashed, killing two passengers and injuring the other two -- one severely. The driver was also hurt.

Tread separations are particularly hazardous when they involve vans and SUVs, which have a higher center of gravity and are more prone to tip over than passenger cars. Tread-separation problems sparked a massive nationwide recall of Firestone tires in 2000.

An official at NHTSA said the agency is aware of the defect and that the U.S. distributor is ultimately responsible for a recall. The agency generally doesn't test tires independently, unless a manufacturer or distributor fights NHTSA's conclusion that its tires are defective.

The company's filing with NHTSA "indicates they have a safety defect and an obligation to recall," said Ron Medford, senior associate administrator for vehicle safety at NHTSA. Mr. Medford said that as the "importer of record," the distributor in this case shoulders responsibility for identifying defects and paying for any recall.

"We're just outraged it's taken this long to get to this point," he added, "because they knew that they had this problem for some time."

The case points to questions about the effectiveness of U.S. safety regulations as they relate to imported tires. Not only has FTS told NHTSA it doesn't have the money to pay for a recall, it said it can't even clearly identify the tires affected because the Chinese manufacturer has failed to provide it with the identification numbers of the tires that were made with the missing safety feature.

Mr. Medford, the NHTSA official, said the agency sometimes makes exceptions for economic hardship, such as when a case involves a particularly small manufacturer. "But that wouldn't apply in this case," he said. "The distributor is the one responsible." He noted that the delay in reporting the problem could result in additional penalties against FTS.

Lawrence Lavigne, an attorney representing FTS in a lawsuit it has filed against Hangzhou Zhongce in federal district court in Newark, N.J., said, "Sooner or later there'll be a recall on these tires. The $64 million question is who pays for it."

In its lawsuit, filed after FTS itself was sued in the wake of the fatal accident, the company accuses the tire maker of removing the safety feature -- a 0.6-millimeter layer of rubber, known as a "gum strip," which is added between the steel belts to give the tires added durability -- without notifying the distributor.

Shi Xinbo, an official at Hangzhou Zhongce, said, "We are confident in our quality. Our products certainly meet the safety standards of foreign countries. This is just a commercial dispute. We are not aware of any official investigation by the U.S. government." He declined to comment on the gum-strip issue.

Mr. Lavigne said FTS suspected a problem as early as 2005, when it noticed a significant increase in claims from consumers for compensation. This typically arises when consumers are dissatisfied with the performance of a tire and return it for a refund or replacement. He contends the Chinese manufacturer initially insisted the tires were built to the specifications and only much later admitted they had been altered.

FTS said it learned in May of last year that an accident occurred in New Mexico involving an ambulance. There were no serious injuries in that case, the company said, but it prompted FTS to undertake a series of tests on the tires. Endurance tests in Texas and inspections by an outside lab in Ohio confirmed that certain tires appeared to have inadequate gum strips or lacked them entirely. Tires that were designed to last 40,000 miles were coming apart after 25,000 miles in the endurance tests, said Mr. Lavigne.

Last year's fatal accident occurred when four carpenters were traveling back to their homes in Philadelphia after a day of framing homes in the Pocono Mountains. According to a lawsuit filed in the Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia County on behalf of the two men killed and one of the two who were injured, the tread separated on the left-rear wheel of the van, causing the vehicle to crash.

Also named in the lawsuit is General Motors Corp., maker of the van. The suit accuses the car maker of building a defective vehicle that was prone to tip over in an accident. The tires involved in the case were replacement tires and not part of the van's original equipment.

GM declined to comment on the lawsuit.

--Ellen Zhu in Shanghai contributed to this article.

Write to Timothy Aeppel at timothy.aeppel@wsj.com