Report raises fears over more Continental tires...

Report raises fears over more Continental tires LONDON (CNNfn) - More concerns over allegedly defective tires could hit Continental General and Ford Motor Co., after data released this week appeared to reveal inconsistencies in information provided to safety agencies, according to a published report Wednesday.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration undertook a four-month probe into the Continental tires in 1993, after they were linked to five deaths, mainly involving Ford models. The agency concluded that the tires weren't unduly dangerous. Continental General is a unit of German tire maker Continental AG (FCON).

However, the newspaper reported that the tires could now be linked to 18 fatalities, and that lawyers acting in civil suits against Germany's Continental and Ford (F: Research, Estimates) say new evidence from court documents could push the agency into issuing a recall.

The WSJ reported that far fewer tires were sold than the NHTSA was led to believe. This could be crucial, because the agency uses the number of tires in use to determine whether the proportion of defective tires is unacceptably high.

The NHTSA told the newspaper it wasn't planning to open a further investigation at the moment, although it hadn't yet received documentary evidence on the matter.

Tire safety is a hot topic in the United States, following a recall of 6.5 million Bridgestone/Firestone tires linked with dozens of deaths in the U.S. and other countries. Continental recently agreed to recall up to 200,000 tires that were used on Ford's Lincoln Navigator. http://money.cnn.com/2000/10/04/worldbiz/conti_recall/