Dangerous recreational vehicle (RV) tires, manufactured by Goodyear, are at the center of a federal investigation and lawsuits nationwide. Are your RV tires safe? Maybe not, according to a recent blog published by Langdon & Emison partner David Brose.
According to Brose, defective G159 tires installed on thousands of RVs nationwide allegedly caused crashes that injured or killed nearly 100 people in the past two decades.
Lawsuits allege the tires were designed for commercial delivery trucks and not for RVs that travel at highway speeds.
“When tires carry loads at levels far greater than what they are designed and constructed, the material properties can degrade and cause tread separation,” said Brose.
Goodyear not only failed to adequately test the tires, but the company also kept critical information about testing results from its primary customers: RV manufacturers. Though high-speed tests of the G159 resulted in significant failures, Goodyear never reported the results to RV manufacturers when approached about reported failures of the tire.
Goodyear knew about the tire failures as early as 1996 but kept the defects secret for decades by settling cases confidentially and getting court records sealed.
Read more about the most recent developments in the Goodyear investigation.
About David Brose
David Brose is a partner at Langdon & Emison. His practice focuses primarily on trucking accident litigation and a range of product liability litigation involving defective vehicles, airbags, tires and other types of product defects. David can be reached at 866-931-2115.
About Langdon & Emison
Langdon & Emison is recognized as one of the nation’s leading personal injury law firms, having taken on some of the world’s largest corporations on behalf of injured people and their families in courtrooms from coast to coast. Langdon & Emison represented the plaintiff in Baker vs. General Motors, a landmark lawsuit where for the first time evidence was admitted into court proving an automaker’s deliberate choice of profits over human safety. With offices in Lexington and Kansas City (Mo.), St. Louis, and Chicago, the firm has earned a national reputation as a leader in auto defect cases, trucking accidents and a full array of personal injury litigation.