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House bill eyes criminality
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September 26, 2000: 9:48 p.m. ET
Commerce subcommittee hopes to prevent future Firestone-type recall events
By Staff Writer John Chartier
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - A House Commerce subcommittee is expected to approve legislation Wednesday which will include a provision that would hold auto and tire makers criminally responsible for failing to report defects, as part of a bill aimed at preventing more traffic deaths from events similar to the Firestone recall.
House lawmakers have said they want President Clinton to sign before the end of the year, congressional sources said Tuesday.
 Critics have argued that imposing criminal charges would make automakers less forthcoming about defects for fear of prosecution.
The news comes as the attorneys general of 38 states are cooperating with one another in their investigations of the Firestone recall, investigations that could spur legal action.
The bill, H.R. 5164, would substantially increase civil penalties against companies that fail to immediately report defects to the government, such as in the case of Bridgestone/Firestone. Lawmakers said Bridgestone/Firestone did not report tread separation problems overseas until several years after their discovery.
"Basically what we're looking to do is to encourage people in the automotive and tire industry, when they know that there's a safety problem or defect, to come forward so that the problem can be caught early," Mike Waldron, a spokesman for Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., who authored the bill. "And the end game strategy here is to save lives."
Click here for an overview of the Firestone recall
But Congressional sources confirmed Tuesday that lawmakers will also include criminal penalties into the proposed legislation, although to what extent remained unclear.
A companion bill awaiting a vote in the Senate, establishes criminal penalties against auto manufacturers who knowingly sell vehicles that do not meet federal safety standards, or who fail to report deaths and injuries related to a known defect. That proposal would allow up to five years imprisonment when the violation results in serious bodily injury, and up to 15 years for violations causing death.
The president of consumer advocacy group Public Citizen said Tuesday that industry lobbyists have convinced lawmakers to water down proposed criminal penalties in a bill.
The House bill, co-sponsored by Upton and Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., who chaired hearings on Bridgestone/Firestone's 6.5 million tire recall, was introduced on Sept. 13.
 The proposal would increase the civil penalty for failing to report product defects to up to $4 million per incident.
Clarence Ditlow, director of the Center for Auto Safety in Washington, D.C., applauded the inclusion of criminal penalties, but urged lawmakers to make sure they specifically apply to company executives.
"We're delighted to see criminal penalties included in the House bill," Ditlow said. "The question is, what's the crime? In other words, is it as they say, a broad definition that would include situations such as Firestone, Ford Explorer, or is it very, very narrow that it is unlikely to have much impact?"
Ditlow said top company executives should be personally held liable.
The Aug. 9 recall of 6.5 million tires by Japan's Bridgestone/Firestone Corp. prompted the legislation as lawmakers initiated their own investigation into the matter. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is also investigating more than 100 deaths and more than 400 injuries that have been linked to the tires.
Lawmakers contend that Firestone and Ford (F: Research, Estimates) knew of tread separation problems overseas as early as 1992, and initiated recalls and replacement programs in Saudi Arabia and other countries, eight years before issuing a recall in the United States.
The investigations have centered on 15-inch models of Firestone's ATX, ATXII and Wilderness AT tires, which mostly came as original equipment on Ford Explorers. At Congressional hearings earlier this month, documents submitted to lawmakers by both companies appeared to indicate that the defective tires, which are prone to tread separation at high speeds and high heat, can be deadly on the Ford Explorers, which can rollover because of its high center of gravity.
Years of government research has already shown that most sport utility vehicles are more likely to roll over in an accident because of their high centers of gravity, but lawmakers are looking into whether the combination of recalled Firestone tires on Ford Explorers is particularly troublesome.
A major focus of Congress' investigation has been on tire pressure. Ford had recommended its Explorer customers inflate their tires to 26 pounds per square inch (PSI), the minimum safe pressure in order to provide a more stable, smooth ride, reducing the risk of a rollover. But Firestone had recommended the tires be inflated to 30 PSI to insure safety.
Lawmakers also slammed the automaker for not immediately notifying the government a decade ago, when it tested the recalled tires and discovered they were failing sooner than they should have. 
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