Mo. Firm Part Of Firestone Case
A Missouri law firm has been hired to help prosecute Bridgestone/Firestone and Ford Motor Company for causing the injury and death of 14 Mexican citizens.
Langdon, Emison, Kuhlman & Evans of Lexington is part of a team of law firms which have filed 14 lawsuits in Nashville, Tenn., against the companies. Bob Langdon and Kent Emison allege that the defective design and manufacture of the tires caused them to separate and to result in rollovers of Ford Explorers.
The incidents involve catastrophic injuries and deaths within the last two years. Each case involves occupants of a Ford Explorer, which crashed after its Bridgestone/Firestone tire de-treaded. Most of the deaths cited in complaints to regulators have occurred in Explorers, and almost all of them involved a rollover after a tire lost its tread during high-speed driving.
Nashville-based Bridgestone/Firestone recalled 6.5 million tires last August following 103 deaths and numerous injuries in the United States and more than 50 deaths overseas. The recalled tires are Firestone's ATX, ATX II, and Wilderness AT, many of which were manufactured at the company's Decatur, Ill., facility. The only tire size subject to the recall is the P235/75R15.
"The bitter irony is that probably all of these deaths and injuries could have been prevented if Firestone had decided to outlay about the cost of a can of Coke by adding a layer of nylon to further bind the steel belts to the rubber in each tire, according to The Chicago Sun-Times. The company already was using this corrective measure on its European and Venezuelan tires," said Langdon.
"These lawsuits are a perfect example of why placing caps on personal injuries by state and federal governments is a bad idea. Tort reform measures limit the legal rights of ordinary Americans and protect businesses that place dangerously defective products into the stream of commerce," he said.
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