INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) - Lawyers suing Ford Motor Co. and Bridgestone Corp's. Firestone unit have asked a federal judge to require that Ford recall most of its Explorer sport utility vehicles.
A motion filed late Friday in Indianapolis federal court claims the 1991 to 2001 Explorer models are ``inherently unsafe'' and ``present a continuing danger to their owners, their occupants and to the American motoring public.''
It also alleges there is no engineering solution and asks that Ford be required to give owners a refund or new truck.
Ford spokesman Ken Zino called the motion ``frivolous,'' noting that it included no data that would justify such an action.
``If they have any data, they should be sharing it with NHTSA,'' he said.
More than 300 personal-injury and class action lawsuits against Ford and Firestone have been consolidated in Indianapolis for pretrial purposes.
The motion came one day after Firestone asked the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to investigate the Explorer, alleging ``safety issues'' with a ``substantial segment'' of the popular SUV.
Firestone maintains that last fall's recall of 6.5 million Ford Explorer tires is sufficient and that its tires alone are not to blame for the rollover accidents that have been linked to 174 U.S. deaths and 700 injuries.
Ford has blamed Firestone for the problems and recently announced it will replace another 13 million Firestone Wilderness AT tires at its own expense.
The plaintiffs' lawyers have already asked U.S. District Court Judge Sarah Evans Barker, chief judge of the Indianapolis federal court, to supervise Ford's tire recall. She has ordered Ford and Firestone to respond to that motion by Tuesday.
_________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com