[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 130 (Tuesday, October 17, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1803-E1804]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 TRANSPORTATION RECALL ENHANCEMENT, ACCOUNTABILITY, AND DOCUMENTATION 
                              (TREAD) ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                            HON. TOM SAWYER

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 10, 2000

  Mr. SAWYER. Mr. Speaker, in the course of the last century, Akron, 
Ohio, has built millions of tires. Although passenger tires have not 
been built in Akron for more than 20 years, Akron remains the center 
point in research and development, technology, and command and control 
for this global industry. We care deeply about safety and we are 
profoundly distressed over the deaths linked to the Firestone tires. 
The Akron community strongly supports the much-needed overhaul of tire 
regulation and oversight authority embodied in the Transportation 
Recall Enhancement, Accountability, and Documentation (TREAD) Act.
  It is our responsibility to bring tire regulation firmly into the 
21st century. The current regulations that make up the Federal Motor 
Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) Section 109 were written in the mid-
1960s, when bias tires still dominated the market. To be fair, National 
Highway and Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the tire 
industry have been working for the last three years to elevate tire 
standards worldwide.
  While we must all work together to demand the safest tire possible, 
we must also recognize that the industry cannot build a perfect tire. 
In the early part of the last century, in the days of the Model T, cars 
carried as many as four spare tires. In the 1950's, there were cars 
carrying two spares. Today, cars typically carry only one. But the 
point remains: the only backup piece of equipment that comes on a car 
is a spare tire, and it is there on purpose.
  Today's tires are complex products. They are highly engineered 
devices operating in one of the most extraordinarily violent 
environments of any consumer product we use in our ordinary daily 
lives. Modern cars develop 100's of horsepower, 100's of pound-feet of

[[Page E1804]]

torque. They also possess extraordinary cornering power and a steering 
capacity unsurpassed in the history of the automobile. Today's cars 
also have braking systems designed to bring thousands of pounds to a 
halt rapidly. All these forces express themselves through four patches, 
each the size of a human hand. That tires perform 700 revolutions per 
mile, mile after mile to 50,000 miles and beyond with such low rates of 
failure is extraordinary.
  Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. said, ``great cases, like hard cases, make 
bad law.'' Congress was put under extraordinary pressure to act quickly 
on an extremely complex issue in developing the TREAD Act. The TREAD 
Act should not be viewed as a panacea for the recent car tragedies. 
While the TREAD Act sets higher standards for tire performance, tires 
will continue to fail. Because of the imperfect nature of the tire, it 
will take continual attention from the industry, consumer groups, 
regulators and Congress to assure the safety of tire consumers above 
and beyond the TREAD Act.
  While Congress cannot legislate a perfect tire, this is good law and 
improves current safety standards. In spite of the time constraints, 
intricacy of the issue, and politically charged atmosphere, the TREAD 
Act sets out realistic standards that improve safety and can also be 
reasonably implemented by the industry and enforced by NHTSA.
  First, the Act requires manufacturers to report comprehensive foreign 
and domestic tire data, such as claims and warranty information, that 
will help NHTSA uncover safety problems across the world, not just in 
the United States.
  Second, the Act holds NHTSA accountable for any data it receives from 
manufacturers. The agency must tell Congress how it plans to analyze 
the data as well as what systems it has in place to process the data. 
This way Congress and the public knows that the information will be 
used to help identify safety problems and not filed away behind some 
regulators desk.
  The TREAD Act presents a balanced approach to improving tire safety. 
Because of this Act, we can expect that when a problem occurs, it is 
identified, its cause is established, and consumers are better 
protected. In the end, we crafted a bill that is a significant 
achievement and moves toward greatly improving consumer safety.

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