Tire Industry Association

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	TIA Contact: Roy Littlefield
June 7, 2005	301-430-7280

TIA Joins Lawsuit Against NHTSA on TPMS Rule

Bowie, MD – (June 7, 2005) The Tire Industry Association (TIA) announced today that they have joined with Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire, Cooper Tire & Rubber Co., Pirelli Tire and Public Citizen in a lawsuit against the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) final rule on Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems (TPMS). The suit was filed late yesterday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

“As TIA stated in our comments and our Petition for Reconsideration to NHTSA, we believe this TPMS rule is fatally flawed,” said Roy Littlefield, Executive Vice President of TIA. “Congress charged NHTSA with creating a rule that would keep the motoring public safe. This rule does not do that which is why we have joined in this lawsuit. This could be the first time in the history of rule-making that the industries impacted by a proposed regulation do not think that the proposal is stringent enough.”

TIA has consistently challenged NHTSA’s TPMS trigger threshold of 25 percent below the recommended cold inflation pressure as too high. “The 25 percent threshold set by this final rule wouldn’t have prevented the Ford/Firestone mess of 2000 that began this whole regulatory process,” said Dick Gust, President of TIA. “We are afraid that this rule, if it is allowed to stand, will make consumers more apathetic to their tires and our tire retailers, manufacturers and technicians more vulnerable to lawsuits in the future.”

“TPMS systems cannot take the place of regular maintenance on tires, “said Littlefield. “TIA and the other petitioners feel that safety is the priority of this regulation, and that NHTSA missed the mark.”

A copy of the lawsuit is available at: http://www.citizen.org/documents/Petition_for_Review.pdf.

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TIA is an international association representing all segments of the tire industry, including those that manufacture, repair, recycle, sell, service or use new or retreaded tires, and also those suppliers or individuals who furnish equipment, material or services to the industry. The Tire Industry Association (TIA) has a history that spans more than 80 years and includes several name changes. Originally known as the National Tire Dealers & Retreaders Association (NTDRA), the organization gave birth over the years to the American Retreaders Association (ARA) and the Tire Association of North America (TANA). ARA changed its name to the International Tire & Rubber Association (ITRA) and merged with TANA in 2002 to form the current Tire Industry Association (TIA), which now represents every interest in the tire industry.

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