1.   People injured in accidents caused by the defective tire have threatened to sue.

2.   But even they doubt any of that resulted in years of defective tires.

3.   But that does not mean the defective tires were the primary cause of the crashes, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration spokeswoman, Liz Neblett.

4.   Congressional aides say they may also take testimony from owners of Explorers involved in traffic accidents that they think were caused by defective tires.

5.   Ford Motor has rushed to assure consumers that it is doing everything possible to quickly fix the problem of defective Firestone tires.

6.   Proponents say the proposed rule may have allowed corporate lawyers to sound an alarm about dangers like tobacco, asbestos or defective tires.

7.   Replacing defective Firestone tires can be a costly, time-consuming and frustrating experience, say tire makers, dealers and crash victims.

8.   Then the automaker was walloped by a crisis over defective Firestone tires.

9.   Things turned ugly, with some saying that this contributed to defective tires.

10.   Workers here, however, insist that they followed proper procedures and that they never witnessed defective tires being approved for shipment.