Firestone Tire Recall
...that Firestone expand the recall to include these tire models.” (GOP) Firestone denied ordering another recall and 1.4 million of these tires were produced. The consumer advisory report is ethically balanced. By coming forth and addressing Firestone they were doing in the publics’ best interest. The NHTSA warned consumers of a problem that the company should be warning them about. It does not slander the name of the company, and it does not create a bias. This document is purely a statement to make the public aware of a life threatening problem supplies the consumers with background to easily assess the situation at hand. By doing this, the source is credible and in such an alert credibility is extremely vital when addressing an entire industry. Public Statements: CEO, of Firestone, John Lampe admits to not using the consumer claims. “CEO John Lampe told Congress in September that the company didn’t use the claims to determine where there were safety problems with the tires.” (Nathan, 2) They did not use this information until Ford Motor, the ones using these tires on their Explorer model, requested the information for the Federal safety regulators. Sue Bailey the administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, who has been following this since May 2000, said that these tires would have been recalled long before they were if this information were presented to them. “The agency, which began investigating their tires in May, could have acted sooner if it had known about the claims. There would have been a recall years earlier that would have saved lives and been less damaging to the company. Firestone received 57 complaints about ATX tires from 1989 to 1995. But then numbers rose in 1999 alone, Firestone received 367 complaints. Of the 119 people NHTSA says have been killed in accidents involving Firestone tire, nearly 90% died after 1995.” (Nathan, 2) “Bridgestone/Firestone was tracking problem tires since 1994, it’s documents show, and managers discussed the problem at least since 1997. But the public wasn’t warned about potentially faulty tires.” (Healey, 1) The fact that Firestone was researching and keeping tabs on these tires poses many questions of validity. The words that are spoken by Firestone members is seemingly dishonest and these attributes will continued to haunt this company until further actions are taken. Lampe stated in light of filtering the corrupt business, “I think some adjustments in our organization are necessary, those involved a few key positions and are not going to be sweeping changes throughout the whole company.”(Healey, 1) A sweeping of this company is necessary to say the least. If one employee can’t even come forth knowing the information they received, and shed some light on consumers for their own safety, then something is seriously wrong. In unethical business settings it is historically challenging to “stand up”. Through Lampe’s public statements I sense no feeling of remorse and bid him no integrity. “Firestone received 57 complaints about ATX tires from 1989 to 1995. But then numbers rose in 1999 alone, Firestone received 367 complaints. Of the 119 people NHTSA says have been killed in accidents involving Firestone tire, nearly 90% died after 1995.” (Nathan, 2) The retaining of this vital information to the public only protects the company from slander. This is extremely unethical and should not occur within prominent businesses such as Firestone. Ethical Assessment: If Firestone approached this situation using the Aristotle ethical system the self-interests of the CEO and other representatives involved would not have played such a major role. They should have put all the thoughts of what would happen to them behind and concentrated on the right thing to do. The goal in an Aristotle ethical system is good, the goal in Firestones’ ethical system was money. IF they would have created the recall early lives could have been saved, but a lot of money would have been lost. The Kant system is applied best to this situation. Firestone, CEO John Lampe, did not release an earlier recall do to the consequences he might have to face. The entire Firestone work ethic is seemingly duty and obligation based, but for the wrong reasons. They believed that by telling the public of the remaining defected tires if would put an unwanted scare on the public. They should have been considering the consequences of the public instead of the obligation to their company. None of the representatives from Firestone come forth to give anyone knowledge of these other tires until the NHTSA investigated the recall and discovered them. It is a disgrace to see such corrupt businesses continuing this unethical treatment of situations within a company. Under the circumstance of this situation it would be fair for Firestone to use the ethics of care system. When the lives of the public are in danger they should be the first consideration. The fact is that the majority of the deaths linked to Firestone could have...