The findings suggested that something about the Explorer may be contributing to those accidents, despite repeated statements by Ford Motor executives to the contrary, the Post said, quoting automotive analysts.

Firestone, owned by Japan's Bridgestone Corp, announced the recall of 6.5 million tyres on August 9. Most of the 15-inch ATX and Wilderness tyres were fitted to light trucks and sport utility vehicles made by Ford.

Since the recall, Ford officials have insisted that the deadly accidents linked to the tyres - most of them involving Ford Explorers - are a Firestone tyre problem.

But safety advocates and plaintiff attorneys have said Ford shares blame for the tyre problem because it recommended the tyres be inflated to 26 pounds per square inch, lower than Firestone's recommendation, to make the Explorer less prone to roll over. Ford, last month, increased its inflation recommendation to 30 psi to match that of Firestone.

Ford chief executive Jacques Nasser conceded in an interview on CBS' "60 Minutes" on Sunday that sports utility vehicles (SUVs), which have higher centres of gravity than cars, were more susceptible to rollover accidents when tyres failed.

"If you do have a bad tyre, then a SUV is more prone to an accident, then, say, a low-slung sedan," he told CBS.

The Post said its analysis - which covered fatal accidents nationally from 1997 to 1999 and a larger Florida database of fatal and non-fatal crashes for the same period - showed that Explorers equipped with Goodyears had a higher rate of tyre-related accidents than other SUVs in the National fatal accident records, although it said the 2,000 accidents involved were so few that the difference could be a statistical fluke.

It said an analysis of 25,000 fatal and non-fatal SUV accidents with 83 blown tyres in Florida showed that tyre blowouts in Goodyear-equipped Explorers contributed to crashes at rates more than double those of other SUVs.

Explorers with Firestone tyres crashed four times as often as other SUVs after tyre failures, the Post said.

Ford and Goodyear tyre & Rubber Co officials criticised the Post's analysis, saying the number of accidents examined was too small to be meaningful, that the databases do not always accurately identify vehicles, and that Explorers should not be compared with the entyre universe of SUVs, which can range from two-seaters to behemoths.

Explorers were no more likely than other SUVs to have brake problems, worn tyres or most other equipment failures that contributed to an accident in Florida, the paper said.

But it said no other make or model of SUV had a pattern of equipment failure related as strongly to accidents as the Explorer's tyre blowouts. Using two different ways of measuring accident rates, the Explorer was either three or four times as likely as other SUVs to have a tyre blowout contribute to an accident, the Post said.

Explorer's higher fatality rate in blowout accidents may be related to rollovers. In 5,870 single-vehicle accidents in Florida, the Explorer was 13 per cent more likely to roll than other compact SUVs, against which Ford likes to compare the Explorer's rollover record, the Post said.

The Explorer was 53 per cent more likely than other compact SUVs to roll over when an equipment failure such as faulty brakes, bald tyres or blowouts caused an accident, it added.

James Fell, who retired last year as chief of research at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, told the Post the findings were a "first indicator that (Ford Explorers) may have a stability problem."

(Reuters)