Bridgestone to Pay $41.5 Million

WASHINGTON —  Bridge-stone/Firestone Inc. will pay $41.5 million in a settlement to head off lawsuits by states over defective tires the company recalled more than a year ago.

Each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands will get $500,000, according to a copy of the settlement obtained by the Associated Press. There are no restrictions on how the money can be spent.

Bridgestone/Firestone will spend $5 million on a consumer education campaign and $10 million to reimburse attorneys’ fees for the states.

The Japanese tire maker, whose U.S. unit is based in Nashville, announced a recall of 6.5 million ATX, ATX II and Wilderness AT tires on Aug. 9, 2000, after receiving reports that some tires suddenly failed. Since then, federal investigators have documented 271 deaths from thousands of accidents involving the tires.

Many of the accidents involved rollovers of Ford Motor Co.’s Explorer, the world’s best-selling sport-utility vehicle. The Wilderness AT tires came as standard equipment.

Attorneys general have been investigating whether Bridgestone/Firestone and Ford were aware of problems with the tires long before the recall was announced. The settlement heads off lawsuits that could have resulted from the investigation, led by Tennessee Atty. Gen. Paul Summers.

Summers was expected to announce the settlement today in Nashville.

Bridgestone/Firestone would not comment on the settlement Wednesday.

The settlement will not end the investigation into Ford by the attorneys general, the sources said. Messages left Wednesday were not immediately returned by Ford officials.

The federal government closed its investigation last month after Bridgestone/Firestone agreed to recall 3.5 million more Wilderness ATs.

Federal investigators found the design of the Wilderness AT and the ATX produced before May 1998 could cause higher stress at the edge of the steel belt and lead to a separation.

Bridgestone/Firestone added a thicker strip of rubber between the two steel belts on the sides of the tire and changed the tire’s material composition in the spring of 1998.

The federal investigation focused attention on tire safety and had far-reaching consequences for consumers and Bridgestone/Firestone and Ford, both of which set aside hundreds of millions of dollars to deal with lawsuits.

Congress passed a law last year updating the nation’s tire standards, requiring government tests of rollover risk and other changes to auto safety laws.

Ford and Bridgestone/Firestone worked together at the beginning of the investigation, but in May, the two companies severed ties.