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This informational site has been developed
to benefit anyone who has suffered injuries, or has lost a loved
one as the result of a Cooper tire failure. 
Various,
comprehensive information has been compiled
for those wishing to learn more about Cooper tires and this
contact information is provided for questions
regarding your legal rights.
Chicken bones, soda cans, gloves, sandwiches,
plastic- and in one case, a shotgun shell- were among the objects
mistakenly baked into tires during manufacturing, workers said.
“I’ve seen everything from a watch cured into a tire,
to a time card, to a soda can, to you name it. Aluminum foil-
I’ve seen chicken bones,”
-Martin
Mahan of Texarkana, a 24-year old employee.
“They
would locate the blister inside the tire with their hands,
and then they would take an awl, and they would insert the
awl through the tread, the two belts, and the ply, feeling
with their finger until they penetrated down to the blister
without going through the liner. And the air would escape,
and they would retract the awl, smooth it over with their
fingers, and let it go. I told my boss this was going to bite
us in the ass. Management, I felt, sometimes passed some things
that shouldn’t have been let go for the almighty dollar,
the bonus. Unfortunately, we’re in an industry that if
scrap gets out it kill somebody.”
-Martin Mahan
“Everyone
would say, ‘this company (Cooper) is in for some big
trouble one of these days if we don’t change our practices.”
-William Douglas Eaton, 13-year employee at the Tupelo
plant
“I worried
about some family getting killed out here on the highways.
Tire builders didn’t want to stop making tires because
it would affect their production bonuses.”
-William Douglas Eaton
Managers told
workers to use up the bad stock, hoping some of the tires
they made from it would hold together. “Some of them
did, and some of them didn’t.”
-Jimmy Oats, 30-year employee at the Cooper Texarkana
plant
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Cooper Tire Recall News
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BREAKING
NEWS
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February
13, 2002 Cooper Tire & Rubber Company has recalled
3,368 of their Cooper Discovery A/T tires for two separate
reasons:
- 484
Discovery A/T tires made between August 26-September 1,
2001 for possible pinholes in the upper sidewall on the
DOT serial number side
- 2,884
tires for possible inner-liner tears caused during ejection
from the mold after curing
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January
21, 2002- Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. Settlement
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company proposed a settlement of
32 pending class actions. Currently, there are many objections
to the settlement. Cooper Tire offered their customers a free
replacement tire for every steel-belted radial that they made
between 1985 and 2001 that suffered a tread separation as
a result of a manufacturing defect. In addition, Cooper Tire
also offered to modify final inspection procedures for their
tires before they enter the warehouse and to create massive
consumer tire safety education program through every retailer
selling Cooper brand and Cooper made tires. Read
More...
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- October 22, 2003 “Senate
votes on class action status” BREAKING
NEWS!!
- October 20, 2003 “Senate
to vote on S. 1751” BREAKING
NEWS!!
- October
29, 2001, “Cooper Records Charge”
- October
6, 2001 “Cooper Tire and Rubber Company Recalls Fourteen
Tire Models”
- March
12, 2001, “Cooper Recalls Certain Motorcycle Tires”
- January
16, 2001, “Firestone, Cooper not alone”
- September
23, 2000, “Complaints against Cooper Tire rise after Firestone
recall, safety agency says”
- September
22, 2000, “Money For Rubber”
- August
25, 2000, “’This company is in for some big trouble’
Another Firestone? Cooper tire workers testify about unsafe production’”
- March
29, 1999, “NHTSA Publishes List of February, 1999 Tire Recalls”
- February 8,
1999, “NHTSA Publishes List of December Recalls”
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to Top
BREAKING
NEWS!!
October 22, 2003, "Senate votes on class action status"
The Senate has voted and failed to pass the class action bill that
would result in benefits for large companies and injured consumers.
Public Citizen consumer group had been actively opposing the bill
and issued a press release stating “the bill would have given
corporate defendants an undue advantage in fighting legitimate lawsuits
involving consumer fraud and unfair workplace practices.”
The group saw the defeat as a great victory and said that they “commend
them for stopping a bill that would have closed the courthouse door
on millions of consumers.”
BREAKING
NEWS!!
October 20, 2003 - "Senate to vote on S. 1751"
The U.S. Senate will be voting on if class action rules in every
state will be revoked and sent to federal court. Beneficial to large
corporations, Public Citizen consumer group believes this legislation
would be “corporate assault on the ability of consumers and
workers to bring class action lawsuits”. In federal court
it is harder to get a case approved for consideration, federal judges
are more conservative in interpreting the law, and crowded court
dockets will delay justice for months and even years, a measure
that can only injure Americans seeking justice.
January 21, 2002- Cooper Tire &
Rubber Co. Settlement
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company proposed a settlement of 32 pending
class actions. Currently, there are many objections to the settlement.
Cooper Tire offered their customers a free replacement tire for
every steel-belted radial that they made between 1985 and 2001 that
suffered a tread separation as a result of a manufacturing defect.
In addition, Cooper Tire also offered to modify final inspection
procedures for their tires before they enter the warehouse and to
create massive consumer tire safety education program through every
retailer selling Cooper brand and Cooper made tires.
Opposition to the proposed settlement
are based off the feeling that Cooper Tire is simply offering replacement
tires despite the claims brought against them for fraud, unfair
and deceptive trade violations, and warranty violations. Cooper
Tire claims that the settlement offers an extended warranty free
of charge to the consumers. The inspection program that Cooper Tire
has offered in the settlement is believed to benefit future Cooper
tire owners, rather than the individuals involved in the class actions.
It is believed that Cooper’s efforts appear to be more of an
opportunity for them to capitalize on a marketing opportunity.
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October
29, 2001, “Cooper Records Charge”
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company announced today that it has reached
a tentative agreement which resolves a series of class action lawsuits
filed against the Company over the past year. As a result of this
settlement agreement, the Company will record a pretax charge of
$55 million, or an after-tax charge of $34 million, or 47 cents
per share. The settlement is expected to result in net cash outlays
of approximately $5 million and $19 million in 2001 and 2002, respectively,
with the remaining amount to be paid over the balance of a five-year
warranty enhancement program provided as part of the settlement.
Read
More...
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October 6,
2001 “Cooper Tire and Rubber Company Recalls Fourteen Tire
Models”
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has published
a recall affecting Cooper Tire models manufactured between February
- March 2000. Read
More…
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to Top
March 12,
2001, “Cooper Recalls Certain Motorcycle Tires”
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has published
a recall affecting the Cooper 130/80R17 65H, 140/80R17 69H and 150/70R17
69H motorcycle tires. The affected models were manufactured between
January 1994 and May 2000. Certain Cooper-Avon Tyres Limited motorcycle
tires, sizes 130/80R17 65H manufactured from Aug. 7, 1995 through
Feb. 26, 2000; 140/80R17 69H manufactured between Jan. 3, 1994 and
May 13, 2000; and 150/70R17 69H manufactured between Feb. 27, 1995
and Nov. 7, 1998, may develop radial cracks between tread lugs in
the shoulder area. 1,729 tires are affected by this recall. Read
More…
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January 16, 2001,
“Firestone, Cooper not alone”
Firestone and Cooper are not the only tire makers called to task
over tires. The first recall of tires because of tread separation
happened in 1978. The company was Firestone. However the tire industry
has - for the most part - avoided public scrutiny of this problem.
It was done with the complicity of the courts. As lawsuit after
lawsuit went to court, evidence, including incriminating documents,
was kept secret. In out of court settlements, tire companies demanded
confidentiality. Read
More…
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September
23, 2000, “Complaints against Cooper Tire rise after Firestone
recall, safety agency says”
Since the recall of Firestone tires last month, federal regulators
report increased safety complaints against Ohio-based Cooper Tire
& Rubber Co. But the agency has not decided whether additional
investigations are needed, Tim Hurd, spokesman for the National
Highway Transportation Safety Administration, said Friday. The New
York Times reported Friday that its review of accident reports and
court records showed that early tread separation in Cooper tires
has been named as the cause of accidents that led to at least 35
deaths over the last six years. Read
More…
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September
22, 2000, “Money For Rubber”
Independent of the Firestone fiasco, the NHTSA is also considering
investigating Cooper Tire and Rubber, the nation’s fourth-largest
tire maker, The New York Times reported today. Lawsuits cited by
the Times have blamed tread separation on Cooper tires for 35 deaths
during the past six years. The tires are usually sold as replacement
tires for light trucks and sport-utility vehicles. Cooper is “outraged”
by the charge, has not been contacted by the NHTSA, and has no problems
with its tires, Cooper spokeswoman Patricia Brown said. “As
to the claim about premature tread separation, this is absolutely
not true ... We have a long history of customer satisfaction with
our tires,” she said. Dr. Sue Bailey, head of the NHTSA, said
the agency was still examining data and had not yet decided whether
to open an investigation. Read
More…
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August 25,
2000, “’This company is in for some big trouble’
Another Firestone? Cooper tire workers testify about unsafe production’”
Three former employees from Cooper Tire and Rubber Co.'s Texarkana
and Tupelo, Miss., plants have testified in an Arkansas negligence
suit that the company used sloppy manufacturing procedures and cut
corners on safety to maintain production. Chicken bones, soda cans,
gloves, sandwiches, plastic - and in one case, a shotgun shell -
were among the objects mistakenly baked into tires during manufacturing,
workers said. "I've seen everything from a watch cured into
a tire, to a time card, to a soda can, to you name it. Aluminum
foil - I've seen chicken bones," said Martin Mahan of Texarkana,
a 24-year employee. Asked if any tires with embedded foreign objects
made it past inspectors and into stores, Mahan said, "I would
be willing to bet my life on it." Read
More…
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to Top
March 29,
1999, “NHTSA Publishes List of February, 1999 Tire Recalls”
This recall involves Cobra Radial G/T P215/70R14 tires (Serial Number
3DHYC28468, 478, 488) manufactured from Nov. 15 through Dec. 5,
1998; and Viper Radial GT P215/70R14 tires (Serial Numbers 3DHYUDN468
and 478) manufactured from Nov.15, through Nov. 28, 1998. These
tires may not have adequate rubber coverage of the belt edge due
to low tread gauge under the shoulder slots. If separation is not
detected, continued use could cause the ply cords to break and the
tubeless liner to tear, which will allow the air to escape and the
tire to become flat. Read
More…
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February
8, 1999, “NHTSA Publishes List of December Recalls”
This recall involves Cooper Trendsetter SE, Serial Numbers 3DUUC2J358
and 3DUUC2J368 (Aug. 30 through Sept. 12, 1998), Mastercraft A/S
IV, Serial Numbers 3DUUFFU338, 3DUUFFU348, and 3DUUFFU358 (Aug.
16 through Sept. 5, 1998), and Hercules MRX Plus IV, Serial Numbers
3DUUHNM338 (manufactured Aug. 16 through Aug. 22, 1998) tubeless
radial standard load tires. These tires may not have adequate rubber
coverage of the belt edge due to low tread gauge under the shoulder
slots. If separation is not detected, continued use can cause the
ply cords to break and the tubeless liner to tear, causing a loss
of air. Read
More…
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