It turns out that this tire was included in the Firestone Tire safety recall implemented in 2001 [1]- however, the tire failed because of a different manufacturing defect than the steel belt separation defects cited in the recall.
The tires in the recall failed - according to what I have read including a technical report titled Firestone Tire Failure Analysis by [2]
Attachment | Size |
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Firestone-bead-exterior-cord-failure-P1560065.jpg [8] | 113.75 KB |
Firestone-bead-failure-P1560048.jpg [9] | 82.04 KB |
Firestone-bead-failureP1560053.jpg [10] | 88 KB |
tire_bead_images_2.jpg [11] | 8.66 KB |
Links:
[1] http://www.fordexplorerrollover.com/recall/Default.cfm
[2] http://www.ce.berkeley.edu/~sanjay/REPORT_WEB_Secure.PDF
[3] http://www.fordexplorerrollover.com/controversy/Default.cfm
[4] http://www.nhtsa.gov/PR/FirestoneRecall
[5] http://data.epo.org
[6] https://www.google.com/search?q=fiber+around+bead+of+tire&hl=en&newwindow=1&safe=off&biw=1366&bih=643&tbm=isch&tbs=simg:CAESEgk8i_17AE9nzUiGqhzE7r-sACA&iact=hc&vpx=809&vpy=125&dur=7403&hovh=288&hovw=175&tx=35&ty=382&sig=100844519598479015343&ei=3mHaTpaGK4L30gGe9bnHDQ&page=2&tbnh=134&tbnw=82&ved=1t:722,r:4,s:21
[7] http://www.citizen.org/documents/rootcause.pdf
[8] http://li326-157.members.linode.com/system/files/Firestone-bead-exterior-cord-failure-P1560065.jpg
[9] http://li326-157.members.linode.com/system/files/Firestone-bead-failure-P1560048.jpg
[10] http://li326-157.members.linode.com/system/files/Firestone-bead-failureP1560053.jpg
[11] http://li326-157.members.linode.com/system/files/tire_bead_images_2.jpg