Sophie Rollet, the widow of a lorry driver and mother of three, has been investigating the issue since 2014. She claims that a manufacturing defect in HGV tyres produced at the Colmar-Berg plant has led to hundreds of accidents, resulting in numerous fatalities and injuries.
Goodyear is accused of neglecting to issue a mandatory recall of the defective tyres to protect its reputation, even as the number of accidents increased. On Tuesday, a significant judicial operation led to searches at three Goodyear sites in Europe. These included the lorry tyre manufacturing plant in Colmar-Berg, Luxembourg, Goodyear France’s headquarters in the La Défense business district of Paris, and Goodyear Europe’s headquarters in Brussels.
The French courts have opened a “homicide” investigation in response to the fatal accidents caused by the tyre blowouts, prompting these extensive searches at the European sites of the US tyre giant.
According to the public prosecutor of Besançon, Etienne Manteaux, concurrent searches have been underway since Tuesday morning at Goodyear’s sites in France, Luxembourg, and the company’s European headquarters in Brussels. This action is part of a “request for international mutual assistance in criminal matters” issued by the examining magistrate in Besançon, located in eastern France.
Le Monde reports that dozens of investigators from three countries have been mobilised under the direction of Marc Monnier, the Besançon examining magistrate leading the investigations.
According to the newspaper, this judicial offensive has been meticulously planned over several months in utmost secrecy to maintain the element of surprise. Coordinated through Eurojust, the EU agency for judicial cooperation in criminal matters, this operation could significantly impact the reputation of the Akron-based multinational due to the gravity of the allegations under investigation.
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