Tragic Indifference: One Man's Battle with the Auto Industry over Dangers of SUVs, By Adam Penenberg, HarperCollins, 2003, $25.95.

It could be that Tragic Indifference: One Man's Battle with the Auto Industry over the Dangers of SUVs , simply arrived to long after the Firestone tire-recall fandango for many people to care about the story. But journalist Adam Penenberg's new book about plaintiff lawyer Tab Turner's crusade against Ford and Firestone for what he believes was faulty design is a worthwhile read for the exhaustive reporting done, which is organized in a fairly compelling way.

Penenberg, known infamously as the Forbes reporter who exposed New Republic journalist Stephen Glass as a fraud, focuses literally on the trials and tribulations of Clyde "Tab" Turner, the Little Rock, Arkansas, lawyer who has done the most damage against Ford and Firestone in cases representing clients who were hurt or killed in rollover accidents in Explorers outfitted with Firestone tires, as well as cases involving rollover deaths of the Ford Bronco.

By now, the story is well-known to most. Ford instituted a replacement program of Firestone tires on its Explorers in August 2000, followed by a broader replacement program in spring 2001. Along the way, the companies were tarred with a broad brush of negative publicity; Ford CEO Jacques Nasser was forced to resign with the Firestone debacle playing no small part in his demise; the Firestone brand has been severely wounded; and Ford no longer buys Firestone tires for its vehicles.

Almost 300 lives and more than 800 serious injuries have been blamed on the Explorer/Firestone combination. Opinions as to whether the companies were culpable for faulty design are as numerous as the accidents themselves. By focusing on Turner, neither company smells very good in the book. But Penenberg's scholarship is impressive, and his storytelling often compelling.

It is fashionable to demonize plaintiff lawyers as grubby money-chasers out to exploit corporations willingness to settle cases rather than leave them in the hands of emotional juries. Like much of the reporting surrounding the Explorer/Firestone debacle, Penenberg's book explores the many short-cuts and compromises Ford made in developing the original Explorer at a time when sport-utility vehicles were taking off as America's new family wagon. Rather than developing a new SUV from scratch, Ford adapted the chassis of the Ranger pickup. When there were concerns about the Explorer's propensity to rollover, even during pre-launch testing, one of the remedies decided upon to keep the tires on the road was to lower the recommended inflation of the tires. That caused tires, the theory goes, to overheat and fall apart, especially in hot climates. Ford did an investigation and made its case that a flock of bad tires could be traced to one plant in Decatur, Illinois, Ford maintained inflation wasn't the issue. Firestone maintained the lower inflation level Ford insisted on was the culprit. The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle, along with financial corners Bridgestone-Firestone was taking to cope with relentless cost cutting Ford was forcing on its suppliers.

An excerpt of the book shows some of Penenberg's storytelling skills:

From afar, Ford's international headquarters in Dearborn seemed more glass than structure, a glistening 14 story steel-latticed box with about 3000 windows. On the 11th floor, executives manned telephones in the company's "war room," fielding questions from frantic consumers and journalists on deadline. Ford president and CEO Jacques Nasser ordered its creation in late July 2000 at about the same time Sean Kane broke the news that Ford had recalled Firestone tires in Venezuela, the Middle East and Asia. Starting out in a 20-foot by 20-foot conference room accessible to Nasser via a private staircase from his office, it quickly became the daily meeting place for a task force of engineering, finance, legal, manufacturing, purchasing, and public affairs officials. As the crisis deepened, it became an "amoeba," as Jason Vines, Ford's vice president of corporate communications and Nasser's right-hand man, put it, taking over several additional conference spaces and spreading to other floors.