I'm sure by now everyone has heard something about Firestone's tire problems. For those who haven't, there is a high incidence of tire failure with Firestone 15-inch ATX, ATX II and Wilderness brand tires.

According to the last report I've seen, there have been over 300 incidents reported and 62 deaths related to 6.5 million tires (that works out to 1.8 million vehicles) sold between 1991-2000. Most of these tires have been installed on Ford Explorer SUV's.

There seems to be a lot of conflicting information out there. Ford says it began noticing problems with these tires in some of their foreign markets, notably Venezuela and Saudi Arabia where tread separation was causing tires to literally disintegrate. Ford press releases state that in most cases this was due to overloaded vehicles with excessively worn or under-inflated tires. Whatever the case, Ford decided to replace these tires. And after much publicity during the past three weeks, Firestone and Ford, as well as other automakers that have used the tires, issued recalls. While everyone involved seems to be trying to shift the blame, a question in people's minds may be "What can I do to avoid this happening on my car?"

From a technical standpoint, the single most critical factor in tire maintenance is proper inflation. A tire consists of a sandwich of materials and when it is under-inflated, these layers rub against each other, generating lots of heat. That heat eventually causes the tire to fail. In connection with the affected tires, Ford said the correct inflation range is 26-30 psi; Firestone says it should be 30 psi while General Motors says it should be 35 psi. I believe that tires should be inflated to the maximum figure stated on the sidewall, if any highway driving is to be done. The 26-30 psi figure recommended by Ford, in my opinion, while providing a smoother ride, is too low for sustained highway use. Plus, few people take the time to check tire pressure on a regular basis. When was the last time you checked your tires?

As we all know, tires tend to lose pressure over time and most people just don't check tire pressure regularly enough. A tire may look fully inflated but one tire may have 10 pounds less than another with no visible difference.

The thing that bothers me more is that this tread separation problem is far worse than what Firestone is experiencing. All you have to do is drive on one of the interstates and you'll see lots of disintegrated tires. A few weeks back, I was behind an 18-wheeler on interstate 84 when one of its tires blew. Luckily I was far enough behind to avoid getting hit with the bigger pieces. Trucks use retread tires that seem to fail with far greater regularity than Firestone tires. But is anyone making a fuss? Where are the safety watchdogs?

Finally, believe it or not, this tire problem is related to our presidential campaign, too. The Republicans and Democrats have opposing views regarding trial lawyers and claims regarding defective products. The Republicans believe that claims and awards for defective products should be severely limited (I heard $250,000 is a reasonable figure.) They say lawsuit awards have been excessive, can really hurt a corporation's balance sheet (tell that to the families of the 62 people who died using Firestone tires) and may hinder future product research. The Democrats, on the other hand, believe there should be no limit, because if there is no "punishment," companies will continue to try and get away with producing defective products. The Republicans counter that lawyers are making too much money and not enough is getting to the victims.

Firestone had similar problems in the 1970's with their 721 radial tires, which also disintegrated with regularity. I remember thinking back then, I'd never buy Firestone tires because of the way they handled that situation.

Anyway, it's some food for thought.

[Peter C. Sessler is the author of 25 books on cars, published by Motorbooks International, Tab Books, Smithmark Publishers, and HP Books. Some of his titles include "Ford Pickup Red Book," "Muscle Car Greats," and "Car Collector's Handbook." Publication is pending on his latest book, "Model Car Handbook," to be published by Scale Sports.]