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Bridgestone on defensive
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September 15, 2000: 2:22 p.m. ET
Company prepares three key officials for depositions in first tire accident case
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NASHVILLE (CNN) - Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. officials were filing depositions Friday in the first defective tires case against the company scheduled to go to trial.
Firestone Tire Engineer James Gardner, Director of Quality Control Bob Wyant, and Development Director Michael Reep were scheduled to give depositions in the case of Nidia Leal.
The start of depositions had been delayed after the two sides could not agree on which official should be deposed first.
Prosecutors say Leal and her husband Patricio of Brownsville, Tex., were killed in May of last year when a Firestone tire on their Ford Explorer blew out, sending the vehicle into a utility pole.
 Nidia Leal's two adult children are named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit. The trial is scheduled for Oct. 16.
Bridgestone/Firestone CEO Masatoshi Ono is expected to file a deposition within the next two weeks.
A separate suit filed on behalf of Patricio's two young children was settled out of court last week. Details of the settlement were not released under a confidentiality agreement.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has linked defects in Firestone ATX, ATX-II and Wilderness AT tires to at least 88 deaths over the last decade.
Last month, Firestone announced a voluntary recall of 6.5 million tires. 
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