Old Goodyear RV tires under recall

Nineteen years after the last one was made, Goodyear has agreed to recall more than 173,000 recreational vehicle tires that the U.S. government says can fail and have killed or injured 95 people since 1998.

Goodyear’s G159 tires have been under investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration since December of 2017. On Tuesday the agency posted documents on its website saying that it had pressured the company into a recall.

Documents say the tire tread can separate from the body, causing drivers to lose control and increasing the risk of a crash.

The agency began investigating the tires nearly five years ago after a judge ordered the release of Goodyear data that had been sealed under court orders and settlement agreements.

Lawsuits and safety advocates allege that the tires were designed for delivery trucks and not for recreational vehicles that travel at highway speeds. They allege that Goodyear kept the problems secret for years by settling cases and getting judges to seal records.

The tires were made from 1996 to 2003. The death and injury numbers were revealed in a 2018 information request letter to the company. The agency did not specify how many people were killed in crashes involving the tires.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., based in Akron, denied that the tires have a safety defect and said Tuesday that few, if any, are still on the road. The company said it’s doing the recall to address risks that happen when the tires are underinflated or overloaded on motorhomes.

Goodyear will replace the tires with a newer model at no cost to RV owners. Owners of tires used on other vehicles can exchange them for $500.