WASHINGTON, D.C., September 24 -- Across the country and around the world, millions of Firestone tires are being recalled because of manufacturing and/or design defects. Roll-over incidents involving sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) equipped with these tires have resulted in something like 100 deaths.
There's certainly a lot of blame to go around on this one. But as they always do in such situations, American drivers are pointing fingers at everyone except themselves. And as usual, we will learn nothing from this episode. Because the real culprit isn't corporate greed, bad engineering, or union sabotage -- it's the lack of skill of the typical American driver.
Americans are in a deep state of denial about their lack of basic driving skills. I've argued before (see The nut that holds the wheel, 9/10/98) that the biggest danger on this country's roads -- and the least-acknowledged one -- is the fact that almost all of our drivers are completely untrained and have no idea how to handle their vehicles in any but the most ordinary of situations.
A "catastrophic tire failure" needn't be catastrophic at all. It's the driver's reaction to the tire failure that makes the difference between life and death.
Editorial writers, columnists, politicians, and consumer advocates fulminate day after day against Firestone, maker of the defective tires in question, and Ford, maker of the SUVs on which the tires were installed. Both companies, they argue, had prior knowledge that the tires were likely to fail and should have recalled them much sooner.
I'm not speaking to that issue, one way or another. Because that's not the real point. And I've only run across one column that addressed the real point. Not surprisingly, it was written by the editor of a major car enthusiasts' magazine. The writer argued that in the vast majority of instances, a "catastrophic tire failure" such as a tread separation needn't be catastrophic at all -- it's the driver's reaction to the tire failure that makes the difference between life and death.
Far be it from me to minimize the personal tragedies that have occurred because of these drivers' lack of skill, when faced with a tire failure -- but it's a good illustration of the folly of buying a huge SUV and thinking it's going to make you safe. (As a motorcyclist, I'm obviously somewhat biased in this regard, because the SUV bunker-mentality motorist is the mortal enemy of the motorcycle rider. But perhaps it's time people started reconsidering the idea that tons of steel, in and of themselves, are the key to highway safety -- or, conversely, that defective tires or cars, in and of themselves, are a significant cause of highway deaths.)
One might also term it "a major malfunction"
In the summer of 1972, my family took a camping trip to Canada's Maritime Provinces, the centerpiece of the trip being a total solar eclipse, which we viewed from Prince Edward Island. We took the trip in our 1965 Ford Falcon station wagon -- loaded down with so much camping gear that the rear suspension sagged noticeably, as I recall.
On the way home, we were driving through New Brunswick, traveling on an undivided four-lane highway at around 70 mph. All of a sudden, the Ford's right-rear tire blew out (as evidenced by a big hole in the sidewall, which we found afterwards).
When the tire blew (they call it a "rapid deflation event" in the tire business), the car swerved sharply to the right. My father, who was at the wheel, did his best to keep the car from going off the road and into the drainage ditch beyond.
The car repeatedly swerved back and forth across all four lanes of the highway (fortunately, there was no one coming in the opposite direction). In a display of driving skill the equal of which I've never seen before or since (at least not from the passenger seat), my dad was eventually able to bring the car safely to a stop on the far side of the road. After we took a few minutes to collect our thoughts, he jacked up the car, removed the wheel, then got someone to take him to the nearest town to replace the tire, which he put back on the car -- and we were back on the road in a couple of hours. No harm, no foul.
Driving skills are much more important than equipment. And until Americans start going to driving schools and learning how to operate their vehicles, they've got only themselves to blame for the carnage.
You will note that nowhere in the above description do I use the term "brakes." That's because my father did not use the brakes at all, except probably at the very end, to bring the car to a complete stop at the side of the road. That's because in that kind of situation, the last thing you want to do is slam on the brakes -- that'll just lock up the wheels and remove whatever vestige of control you have. A far better approach is to make as few "inputs" as possible and let the car coast to a stop.
Unfortunately, most people have no clue how to handle a situation like that -- when something unexpected happens, their knee-jerk response is to slam the brake pedal to the floor. Which causes them to lose control of the vehicle entirely -- with "catastrophic" results, especially if the vehicle is a top-heavy SUV, which tends to roll over easily. It is driver behavior -- not tire defects -- that is probably responsible for most of the deaths that have led to the Firestone/Ford recall.
This is the "stop" pedal, right?
A couple of years ago, Meg and I went out on a Sunday morning and got onto I-294 in Illinois. As I accelerated up the on-ramp, I heard the screech of rubber on pavement coming from behind and to the left. I looked over and saw a small car skidding several hundred feet down, then across, the highway, eventually coming to a stop almost directly in front of us. This was on a sunny day, with dry pavement and no traffic to speak of. What had happened? I have no idea (my guess is that the driver just got startled somehow, possibly by another motorist) -- but for some reason, the driver had slammed on the brakes and locked up all four wheels, then kept the brake pedal glued to the floor in the mistaken belief that this was the safest and quickest way to stop. This is the mentality of the average American motorist.
In the current tire-recall situation, Firestone and Ford are certainly not entirely blameless -- far from it. Evidence is mounting that they were well aware of the Firestone tires' defects long before they actually started recalling the tires. They should have taken action sooner. But the tire failures alone are simply not responsible for all the deaths that are being blamed on them. American drivers must accept their share of the responsibility -- a lot of the deaths have been the result of pilot error. Driving skills are much more important than equipment. And until Americans start going to driving schools and learning how to operate their vehicles, they've got only themselves to blame for the carnage.
Copyright © 2000 John J. Kafalas
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