DETROIT — A federal grand jury in Los Angeles is gathering proof in a prison investigation of Goodyear leisure automobile tires that the federal government blames for crashes that killed eight individuals and injured dozens of others.
The grand jury has subpoenaed Arizona lawyer David Kurtz searching for all paperwork and deposition transcripts in a lawsuit he filed towards the Akron, Ohio, tire maker.
A letter accompanying the Jan. 4 subpoena says that it was issued in an “official criminal investigation being conducted by the Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General.” It additionally says that the Justice Division’s Client Safety Department in Washington is concerned, in addition to the U.S. Legal professional in Los Angeles.
Paperwork from Kurtz’s lawsuit touched off a 2017 investigation of the tires by the Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration (NHTSA) that resulted in a recall final 12 months. The paperwork additionally revealed that Goodyear knew the G159 RV tire may fail and trigger extreme crashes, but it didn’t recall them for as many as 20 years.
The Justice Division and the DOT Inspector Basic wouldn’t touch upon the probe.
In an announcement, Goodyear didn’t tackle the federal investigation, however maintained that there’s no security defect with the tires. The corporate mentioned that it recalled the tires to handle dangers that occur when they’re underinflated or overloaded.
“This tire hasn’t been made since 2003,” the assertion mentioned, including that “it consistently met Goodyear’s demanding safety standards.”
Kurtz confirmed that he acquired the subpoena and supplied copies of it and the accompanying letter. He mentioned on Thursday that he intends to conform and produce about 200,000 paperwork he gathered from suing Goodyear.
The DOT Inspector Basic says on its web site that its brokers have federal legislation enforcement authority to conduct prison investigations, together with the flexibility to make arrests, execute search warrants and carry firearms.
“Where appropriate, we make referrals for prosecution to the Department of Justice or state and local prosecuting authorities,” the workplace mentioned in an announcement.
It’s not clear precisely what the grand jury is investigating. However in a letter to Goodyear searching for the recall final 12 months, the NHTSA mentioned the corporate ought to have recalled the tires inside 5 working days of changing into conscious of a defect, which it apparently knew of as early as 2002.
“The safety-related defect is a clear, identified failure that leads to a loss of vehicle control, causing crashes and potentially catastrophic consequences such as death and serious injury,” the NHTSA wrote within the letter.
Paperwork from the protection company say that the tire tread can separate from the physique, inflicting drivers to lose management and rising the chance of a crash.
Goodyear wouldn’t recall the tires at the same time as late as March of final 12 months, regardless of investigators discovering that their failure triggered crashes that killed eight individuals and injured 69 others from 1998 by 2009.
The NHTSA made the allegations towards Goodyear in a February 2022 letter despatched to the corporate searching for a recall of twenty-two.5-inch-diameter G159 tires.
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. responded to the company in a March 8 letter refusing to do a recall, however later, it determined to conduct one, in response to NHTSA paperwork.
The NHTSA had threatened a public listening to and court docket motion if the tires weren’t recalled. Goodyear then agreed to recall about 173,000 tires.
In its response letter, Goodyear maintained that the tires have been rigorously examined and totally certified to function at freeway speeds.
“No subject tire inspected by Goodyear engineers ever revealed or even suggested a defect of any kind,” the corporate wrote.
The NHTSA introduced an in depth timeline of what Goodyear knew when, based mostly on an investigation into the tires that started in 2017. It additionally mentioned that the corporate routinely settled lawsuits and received judges to seal the data, holding it from NHTSA and different plaintiffs’ attorneys.
“NHTSA was not alerted to the extraordinary failure rate of the subject tires” till paperwork have been launched in an Arizona case in 2017, the letter mentioned.
After the recall was introduced, the NHTSA, which is a part of the Transportation Division, mentioned that it was closing its investigation however reserved the suitable to take additional motion as warranted.
Goodyear has mentioned that few if any of the tires are nonetheless in use. As of Jan. 13, the corporate had changed solely 13 of the tires, in response to NHTSA paperwork.
Information of the investigation was reported on Wednesday by the Wall Road Journal.
Kurtz mentioned that he’s glad that the federal government appears to be transferring on the investigation.
“Better late than never,” he mentioned.
