Fatal tire spaters: Goodyear accused | Luxembourg word

«  »Goodyear Operations confirms that it was informed about an indictment in the context of an ongoing investigation in connection with some traffic accidents from heavy-duty vehicles from 2014 and 2016, « said a spokeswoman for the multinational US company of the AFP news agency. » Goodyear Operations will be fully cooperate as part of this investigation, « she added.

The legal representative of the SAS Goodyear Operations, which produced the objected tires and is based in Luxembourg, was charged on Tuesday by an investigator in Besançon, in an investigation that was initiated due to « negligent killing », « deception about the essential properties of a goods » and « misleading business practices ». According to a judicial source, the latter two inventory can be punished with a fine of « up to ten percent of the sales » of the company.

Prosecutor: « No comment »

The public prosecutor’s office Besançon, which was contacted by AFP, did not want to comment at this stage of the proceedings.

Philippe Courtois, the lawyer of Sophie Rollet, the widow of a long -distance driver who had reported the judiciary’s case in 2016, was « satisfied with this first indictment that can only announce others who will come ».

« What was only hypotheses nine years ago have now become real facts » and « it is time that those responsible make their decisions in full knowledge of the situation, » he told the AFP news agency.

The legal representative of a second unit of Goodyear, the SAS Goodyear France, which the tires driven out in France, is charged in front of the examiner in a bison for Wednesday.

« Goodyear has to answer a simple question to the examiner: Did you know? And if you knew it, why was nothing done to take their tires off the market and prevent these tragedies? » Said Courtois.

« For years, victims were ignored, facts covered up and the dangers, even though they were known, have deliberately downplayed, » complains the lawyer.

Still available

The investigation relates to three cases of fatal collisions with trucks that were equipped with Goodyear tires in the Departments Somme, Doubs and Yvelines in 2014 and 2016, in which a total of four people died. In May 2024, she led to searches at Goodyear in France, Luxembourg and the European headquarters of the company in Brussels.

According to the investigation, the accidents were caused by the bursting of a front tire of the trucks, causing the drivers to lose control of the vehicle. In each of these cases, different experts came to the conclusion that the bursting of this Goodyear Marathon LHS II or Marathon LHS II+tire was not due to an external cause, but due to a manufacturing error.

The US giant is accused of knowing this mistake in these two models, but did not point out his customers. From 2013, Goodyear introduced “voluntary exchange programs” and was able to recover about 50 percent of the devices that are complained about.

However, the group did not carry out a « mandatory » recall campaign for the affected tires, some of which are still available on used goods websites in Eastern Europe, as the public prosecutor of Besançon, Etienne Manteaux, announced in April.

« Covering »

A « systemic cover -up practice » is criticized that aimed to « cause no loss of trust among consumers ». The accidents could have been “avoided” if the company had initiated a recall program, the public prosecutor said.

The files of four other similar collisions, which occurred between 2011 and 2014 in the Hérault, Indre and ISère departments and in which three people died, were also included in the study as the deeds were statute -barred.

These dramas not only affected France. « I believe that there have been accidents all over Europe, » Manteaux, who has now left Besançon, had judged.

The investigation was initiated in Besançon in 2016 after Sophie Rolle, the widow of Jean-Paul Rolle, a 53-year-old truck driver who died in the Doubs department in an accident on the A36 motorway in July 2014.