Now it turns out that some plaintiffs' lawyers and a traffic safety consultant knew about the problem in 1996 but opted not to tell government regulators because that could have jeopardized their lawsuits.

In a Sunday New York Times story, the consultant said the lawyers were leery of getting burned if the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigated and didn't find a defect.

So apparently they kept information about deaths and injuries linked to Firestone ATX tires to themselves until other complaints prompted the agency to start investigating in 2000.

And they wonder why trial lawyers get demonized.

Firestone already has recalled millions of ATX and Wilderness tires. As of mid-June, 203 deaths have been reported as being linked to the tires, according to the NHTSA Web site.

The agency expects to announce the results of its investigation into the tires next month - dozens of deaths and hundreds of injuries after it might have been completed had the companies been required to report lawsuit trends or had others with crucial data not withheld it.

Of course, lawyers have a professional obligation to do their best job for their clients. And no law required them to report findings gathered in preparing suits. But didn't they see a higher civic responsibility?

At its most noble, personal injury litigation aims to improve products by forcing manufacturers to consider the impact of their actions on consumers. Surely sacrificing public safety to litigation strategy doesn't serve that goal.