In May 2006, SRS presented original research to NHTSA showing that the efforts by Ford and Firestone to recall Wilderness AT and ATX tires in 2000 and 2001 had failed to gather many of the spares. These tires were original equipment on the Ford Explorer, and included a full size spare that was stored under the vehicle. These tires were implicated in a spate of Ford Explorer rollover crashes causing more that 200 deaths hundreds of serious injuries.  SRS was able to show that many of the spares were not replaced in those recall campaigns and were forgotten as the vehicles passed to new owners. Some of the tires, which had never been used, looked new and were put into service.  Motorists who used these tires suffered catastrophic tire failures as the tires were not only defective, but further degraded internally from age. At least five lost their lives as the recalled spares were unknowingly put into service.

In response to SRS’s information, Firestone announced in July 2006 it would initiate a recall campaign seeking spares that were missed during the original recalls.