Angry in the Great White North

Maybe this is getting boring, but there is yet another potentially massive recall of Chinese-made products. In this case, tires being sold under the names Westlake, Telluride, Compass, and YKS:

A lawsuit blames cheap Chinese tires for a fatal traffic accident in Pennsylvania. The suit says tread separation caused a cargo van carrying four passengers to crash, killing two passengers and injuring the other two. The light truck tires were sold under the names Westlake, Telluride, Compass and YKS.

"This is a prime example of a private lawsuit with a substantial public benefit," said Jeffrey B. Killino, an attorney with Woloshin & Killino, which represents the families of the deceased and injured. "The Hangzhou Rubber Company deliberately and secretly removed a safety feature from these tires and two young men died as a direct result. This was a tragedy that didn't have to happen, but hopefully we can prevent future fatal crashes."

The tires were manufactured by China's Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co. and imported by Foreign Tire Sales Inc. (FTS), of Union, N.J. FTS says a crucial safety feature was omitted from as many as 450,000 tires it imported from the Chinese company since 2002.

The safety feature in question is a six-millimeter layer of rubber that is supposed to be placed between the steel belts to strengthen the tire. But FTS says Hangzhou removed the safety feature without notifying its U.S. distributors.

FTS says it noticed the problem a few years ago, as it received a larger than usual number of complaints from consumers. The company says it knows of at least one other accident, this one involving an ambulance in May 2006.

Given that the distributer agrees that the safety feature is missing, a tire recall was inevitable:

In the latest controversy involving Chinese products, federal regulators are asking a New Jersey company to recall as many as 450,000 imported tires because the product was blamed for an accident that killed two people last year.

The tires, intended for use on pickups, sport utility vehicles and other light trucks, were sold in the U.S. as far back as 2001 under the brand names Westlake, Telluride, Compass and YKS. They were made by Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co. of Hangzhou, China.

Although motorists may not be able to get refunds for replacing the potentially defective tires, one safety expert said they shouldn't take a chance.

"I'd recommend taking them off," said Sean Kane of Safety Research & Strategies Inc. "It's a big inconvenience, but the chances of a tread separation and a loss-of-control crash are a much bigger consideration."

Lavigne said the Chinese manufacturer hadn't provided information on which tires might be defective, which would help them identify customers who might be at risk.

Executives at Hangzhou Zhongce couldn't be reached for comment.

Given that Hangzhou is stonewalling, it looks like a recall of almost half-a-million tires is in the works.

Will this affect Canada? Rakla Tires in Mississauga distributes Westlake branded tires from Hangzhou throughout Canada.

I know these Westlake tires were made in the Hangzhou plant because the URL for the subpage that gets loaded into the frame includes Hangzhou in the address, not once but twice:

http://www.rakla.com/Hangzhou%20and
%20Ling%20Long%20%20Tire%20Details
/HANGZHOU%20Tire%20Details%20Page
/TIRES/WestLakeProductsMainPage.htm

According to this news report, there are specific tire sizes affected by the defect:

According to the company, the tires at issue were sold under at least four brand names: Westlake, Compass, Telluride and YKS.

The tires in question came in these sizes: LT235/75R-15; LT225/75R-16; LT235/85R-16; LT245/75R-16; LT265/75R-16; and LT3X10.5-15.

I found all these sizes listed on the Rakla website.

There is no way to tell just how many Westlake tires are on Canadian roads, and how many of those are prone to tread separation. Maybe accidents have already happened, and people have already been hurt. Nor do we know right now what other Hangzhou tires are being distributed inside of Canada through other import channels.