SUVs Are Unsafe On Any Tires

In the 10-year period during which Ford SUVs outfitted with Firestone tires caused some 300 deaths in rollover accidents, more than 12,000 people died in SUV rollovers unrelated
to tire failure.

Tire safety TV ads debut

Traffic safety office warns drivers about dangerous mix of heat and under inflation.

Detroit news - August 14, 2007

WASHINGTON -- The federal government has enlisted a group of exploding frogs in a new public service ad unveiled Monday that encourages motorists to check their tires in hot weather to make sure they're properly inflated.

The 30-second TV spot from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration features a narrator with a British accent describing the "perilous journey" that frogs face crossing the road, especially on a hot day. It then shows what appear to be eight frogs exploding in a puff of smoke and fire on hot asphalt.

"We really need to clear through the clutter and do something dramatic to get people's attention," NHTSA Administrator Nicole Nason said in an interview Monday.

NHTSA did not disclose how much it is spending on the campaign. But Nason was quick to point out that Humane Society officials were on hand when the ad was filmed in California, and that "no frogs were harmed and the toads were treated like princesses."

Extreme heat that leads to underinflation is a major factor in the aging of tires, which, in turn, is a factor in tread separation, NHTSA officials say. Tread separation from tires has been a big issue in auto safety since 2000, when problems first emerged with Firestone tires failing on Ford SUVs that were linked to 280 deaths. Ford eventually spent $3 billion to recall 13 million tires.

"Heat speeds up the aging of tires," Nason said. "It reduces the durability and makes it more prone to failure." A one-year-old tire driven in extreme Arizona heat is "older than they think," she said.

Late Friday, NHTSA sent to Congress a 26-page report on research into tire aging. The report disclosed that NHTSA is considering a regulation that would measure how well tires performed during tire-aging durability tests.

More problems in hot places

According to the report, "the research findings suggest that tires age faster in regions with higher ambient temperatures and that low tire pressure was not the only failure mechanism at work."

The report notes that after four years of use, claims of tire damage were much higher in Arizona, which has extreme temperatures. One large insurance company told NHTSA that between 2002 and 2006, 77 percent of tire claims came from Texas, California, Louisiana, Florida and Arizona, while just 27 percent of its policy holders are from those states. Of those claims, 84 percent were for tires over 6 years old.

"A large number of tire failures are likely occurring because of the effect of sustained high temperature on tires," the report said.

Still to be determined is whether tires should have an expiration date -- a move opposed by tire makers that Nason said she isn't ready to endorse.

BMW, Ford, Daimler AG, Chrysler LLC, Toyota Motor Corp. and Volkswagen AG back guidelines that tires should only be in service six years.

Sean Kane, president of Safety Research & Strategies, a group that has pushed for stronger tire regulations, said the insurance company data on the claims for older tires was significant.

"That's pretty telling that most claims were for tires over six years," Kane said.

He called for using radio frequency ID tags, already used in heavy truck tires, in tires for passenger cars and light trucks. That would give each tire a unique ID and the ability to record temperature, number of miles driven and whether the tire was inflated properly.

"At a minimum, the age of a tire needs to be displayed on a tire in a much clearer way," Kane said.

Dan Zielinski, spokesman for the Rubber Manufacturers Association, said his group supported NHTSA's ad campaign, but not expiration dates.

"Heat is the enemy of a tire," Zielinski said, noting that high heat inside a tire because of underinflation is actually a bigger problem than the air temperature.

"When people drive underinflated tires, you are raising the risk of tire failure," Zielinski said.

Most fail to properly check

In the ad, the British narrator says: "Although always a perilous journey, a trip across the road for our web-footed friend is especially unbearable during extreme summertime temperatures."

Another narrator notes that frogs are not likely to explode on the road, but urges motorists to check their tires during hot weather. The spot features a woman using a tire pressure monitor on the tires of her Ford SUV and examining the tread wear.

"Routinely check your tread wear and the pressure of tires to make sure they are properly inflated because you wouldn't want them to go" -- here, a frog explodes on screen -- "on a hot road," the narrator says.

A tire industry survey this year found 85 percent of drivers fail to properly check tire pressure. NHTSA estimates that crashes associated with tire problems kill 660 people yearly and injure 33,000.