Internal documents released by Ford Motor Co. show the carmaker knew about defects in Ford Explorers that contributed to hundreds of deaths from rollovers while it publicly blamed the fatalities on Firestone tires a decade ago.
Company engineers in Venezuela decided that the sport utility vehicle’s shock absorbers should be replaced after 50 crashes in that country. Ford performed the repairs in Venezuela while convincing the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the U.S. that the Firestone tires were at fault. NHTSA officials agreed with Ford. The regulatory agency now admits it was aware of the shock absorber problem but still refused to open an investigation into the Explorer’s safety, The Washington Post reports.
There are distinct similarities between the Explorer investigation and recall 10 years ago and this year’s recall of 9 million Toyotas after widespread reports of sudden acceleration. In both cases, NHTSA refused to open investigations after possible defects first came to its attention, and in both cases, the carmaker avoided taking responsibility for as long as possible.
