Representatives of Goodyear Luxembourg must be in front of the investigator
Two companies in the American tire giant Goodyear are invited to an investigator in Besançon for May 13th, « with regard to a possible indictment » as part of an investigation for negligent homicide for bursting truck tires that led to fatal accidents in France, as the Besançon public prosecutor announced on Thursday.
The investigation also extends to « deception about the essential properties of a goods » and « misleading business practices », said prosecutor Étienne Manteaux, which threatens Goodyear a fine of up to 10 percent of its sales.
The US giant is accused of having known about a production error in his tires, but not informing its customers.
« Systemic surcharge practice »
According to the magistrate, who speaks of a « systemic cover -up practice », the accidents could have been « perhaps » avoided if the company had started a callback program for incorrect tires.
The investigator « has accused two legal persons, » said Manteux: The SAS Goodyear France, which the tires sell in France, and the SAS Goodyear Opérations, which produced the objected tires and is based in Luxembourg.
The judge will ask the legal representatives of the companies to determine whether charges should be charged against these three points.
The investigation was initiated in Besançon in 2016 after Sophie Role, the widow of a long -distance driver who died in July 2014 in an accident on the A36 motorway in the Doubs department, had filed a complaint with a co -action. Since then, an examiner in Besançon has been investigating in three cases of deadly clashes in which trucks with Goodyear tires were involved and in which a total of four people were killed.
