
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, December 2, 1994                   TAG: 9412020056
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A15   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Short

GM TO DEFEND TRUCKS AT PUBLIC MEETINGS

General Motors Corp. has decided to defend the safety of its older pickup trucks in a series of public meetings the government plans next week.

While the company believes the controversy over the fuel tanks in its 1973-87 pickups will be resolved in court, it will send officials to the meetings that begin Tuesday.

The automaker had considered not participating.

``We are prepared to present in great detail our position that [the trucks] are not unsafe,'' GM spokesman Ed Lechtzin said Thursday.

Transportation Secretary Federico Pena ordered the public discussions to help him decide whether to force GM to recall and fix some of the older trucks. The automaker already has sued Pena for his early rulings against the trucks, and GM could have used that suit to try to block the public meetings.

Lechtzin said a review by the Transportation Department's inspector general of Pena's rulings reinforces GM's belief they were arbitrary and illegal.

GM denies that the side-mounted fuel tanks in the 1973-87 trucks are prone to fires in side crashes.

by CNB