American giant Goodyear is summoned to French justice on May 13 “In view of a possible indictment”after bursting of truck tires that cause fatal accidents in France, the Besançon prosecutor announced this Thursday, April 17. The survey for manslaughter also focuses on chiefs of “Decurry on the substantial qualities of a commodity” et “Deceptive commercial practices”said the prosecutor Etienne Manteaux, which makes Goodyear incur a fine of up to 10 % of his turnover.
The investigating judge summoned two legal persons: SAS Goodyear France, tire distributor in France, and SAS Goodyear Operations, which produced the tires incriminated and whose headquarters are in Luxembourg. The judge will question their legal representatives “To determine whether it is necessary to put them under investigation or not” Of these three chefs, explained Etienne Manteaux.
Goodyear is criticized for being aware of a manufacturing defect on its tires but of not having warned its customers. According to the magistrate, which evokes a practice “Systemic concealment”accidents would have “maybe” could be avoided if the company had started a reminder program for defective tires.
The investigation was opened in 2016 in Besançon after the complaint with the constitution of a civil party by Sophie Rollet, widow of a truck driver who died in July 2014 in an accident on the A36 motorway in the Doubs. An investigating judge in Besançon has been investigating since then on three fatal collision files, involving heavy goods vehicles equipped with Goodyear tires, which left four dead in total.
