Mario Martins Cardoso will always remember July 17, 2014. The Portuguese electromechanic was driving on the A1 freeway towards Paris when, at round 1:30 pm, close to Roye in northern France, he noticed a thick plume of black smoke rise into the sky, adopted by a automotive rolling over earlier than coming to a halt on its aspect. The 37-year-old received out of his automobile to help the passengers within the crashed BMW. On the passenger aspect, he managed to extract a lady, 4 months pregnant and barely injured, in addition to his 9-year-old daughter, who was trapped within the again seat, “lined in blood throughout,” in accordance with his account. The little lady suffered solely bruises: The blood was that of her father, Luis Lesmes, who died on the wheel. The British nationwide of Venezuelan origin was an govt at Glencore, a global behemoth specializing within the buying and selling, brokerage, and extraction of uncooked supplies – a element which is able to come to matter on this story.
When questioned by the investigators, Elvia Campins Sanchez, who miraculously escaped the tragedy, alongside along with her unborn little one, recalled: “A truck was in entrance of us, and my husband was about to overhaul it. At one level, I heard a loud noise, like an explosion. The truck swerved into our lane and we could not keep away from the impression.” The motive force of the truck, a MAN belonging to Transports Dubois, was unharmed. The gendarmes discovered that the accident was attributable to a burst entrance left tire on the automobile, a Goodyear Marathon LHS II+. Like its predecessor, the LHS II, this well-known mannequin was implicated in a sequence of suspicious accidents. Because the spring of 2014, the American producer had been attempting, discreetly, to withdraw it from the market, with out going by means of an official faulty product recall process. The identical applies to the Dunlop SP 344, additionally produced by Goodyear. The LHS II, however, was not included within the trade marketing campaign. On July 23, 2014, a couple of days after the accident in Roye, MAN was knowledgeable by Goodyear of its business program to exchange the Marathon LHS II+. Nevertheless it was too late.
“This letter defined the return of sure tires to be able to examine their situation and, if mandatory, trade them if there was a fault,” Marc Martinez, MAN’s director common, instructed the French gendarmes. His firm then despatched out a sequence of warnings to prospects who owned vans fitted with these tires. Nevertheless it wasn’t till August 14 that MAN made Transports Dubois conscious of the issue. In its letter, the corporate wrote in regards to the Marathon LHS II+ in clear phrases: “The tire treads could come unstuck.” In direct contact with the asphalt, the treads assure the tire’s grip; any failure on their half constitutes a mortal hazard. On September 13, Laurent Dubois, supervisor of the eponymous firm, forwarded MAN’s August 14 letter to the gendarmes investigating the accident at Roye, with this remark: “The tires in query have a defect.”
You will have 86.76% of this text left to learn. The remaining is for subscribers solely.
