إلى انفجار إطار السيارة مما أدى إلى انقلابه: Is made in China - Tires made in China recalled

Quote: Tires made in China recalled Updated 1d 9h ago | Comments 104 | Recommend 29 E-mail | Save | Print | Reprints & Permissions | By Sharon Silke Carty, USA TODAY The government has ordered a small New Jersey tire importer to recall 450,000 Chinese-made light-truck tires because they might come apart and cause fatal crashes, even though the importer says the costs of a recall would bankrupt it. The tires, in sizes typically used by full-size vans, SUVs and pickups, are blamed in a fatal accident outside Philadelphia that's generated a lawsuit against Foreign Tire Sales of Union, N.J. FTS has in turn sued Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber, one of China's biggest tiremakers, which sold it the potentially faulty tires. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it told Foreign Tire on Monday to recall the tires. It would be the second recall in a year and a half involving Hangzhou Zhongce tires. In February 2006, Cooper Tire & Rubber recalled 288,000 passenger-car tires from the Chinese maker because they contained "unauthorized material" in the sidewalls. Cooper said that could have caused air leaks and, eventually, tread separation. Cooper couldn't be reached Monday night for comment. Foreign Tire says it sold Hangzhou Zhongce tires under brand names Westlake, Compass, Telluride and YKS since 2002. Xu Youming, an administrative manager at Hangzhou, denied that the tires had safety issues. FIND MORE STORIES IN: Chinese | SUVS | Hangzhou | Telluride | Cooper Tire "There is no problem with the quality of our tires," Xu said. "We have been exporting our tires … to the USA for over 10 years." He said FTS placed a new order just two days ago. "We were getting visas to go to the U.S. to discuss the tire problem related to the incident last year, but now they have blamed us in public. … We do not plan to visit the U.S. now." Tread separation is the problem that led to the recall of 14.7 million Firestone tires starting in 2000, most of them on Ford Explorer SUVs. "We realize this company makes tires for a lot of folks. We don't know how far this problem could extend," says Sean Kane, president of consulting firm Safety Research & Strategies. Kane says tread separation is particularly dangerous on trucks. "It creates pull on one side of the vehicle. If you have a light truck, the chance of a loss of control or a rollover is much more significant." Foreign Tire was sued in Philadelphia on May 4 by the families of two men killed when their van crashed Aug. 12, 2006. The lawsuit claims the van had Hangzhou Zhongce tires. The tires appear to lack a feature called a gum strip that helps hold the layers, or belts, together. Some tires have the strip, but it's narrower than Foreign Tire expected, the company told NHTSA. Xu denied that lack of a rubber strip in the tires made them unsafe, saying there are "many other safety techniques" to ensure their safety.