Tire Blowout
Experiencing a Tire Blowout Or Tread Separation Can Be Treacherous
You are driving down the road just as you have many times before when suddenly a tire blows out or the tread separates causing an instant flat. You have to react quickly to keep your car on the road and away from other vehicles, curbs, and telephone poles or trees along the side of the road. When a blowout or separation happens at highway speeds it make a car difficult to control and crashes often result, some with devastating injuries. If a tire blowout has happened to you resulting in an injury, you should reach out to a Lakeland tire blowout accident attorney for a free consultation.
A Variety of Problems Exist With Tires
There are a number of different things that can cause your tire to blowout or separate. The most common cause of a tire blowout is underinflation. When your tire is underinflated for too long, excessive wear will be seen on the outside of the tread nearest the sidewall. Even though there is plenty of tread left in the center of the tire, the tread near the sidewall wears down to the threads and eventually separates causing a catastrophic tire failure.
While some underinflation issues are due to owner negligence, other underinflation issues may be related to a vehicle manufacturer that specifies a tire pressure that is too low (for purposes of a smoother ride), a defective tire pressure monitor system (TPMS), or a third party product liability issue (such as a gauge that consistently reads higher than the actual pressure). If you have followed all of the manufacturer’s recommended settings and a tire blowout occurred, you may have a viable legal claim.
Tire Manufacturing Defects
A manufacturing defect in a tire may also be the cause of a tire blowout. Tires are manufactured by fusing several layers of materials together and then heating the rubber (vulcanization) to join and harden the tire together as one. If there was a problem in the manufacturing processes of the tire where the vulcanization process did not fully join the layers, then the tire can fail catastrophically as the tire ages.
We must remember that as rubber ages, it typically gets hard and brittle. This is why you should change your tires at least every six years even if there is plenty of tread left. Exposure to sun and chemicals also has an impact on how brittle the tire’s components are.
Hire an Experienced Personal Injury Attorney Quickly
If a tire blowout happened to you and it resulted in a serious injury to you or death to a family member, you should hire legal counsel as soon as you can. The reason this is so important is that the evidence (the parts of the tire) are often thrown away and discarded by police who do not see a need to keep it. If you have a serious injury, you are recovering in the hospital and are unable to go to the scene of the accident yourself to collect the evidence that you will need to prove your case. By the time that you get out of the hospital, the evidence that you need is most likely long gone.
If you suffered a serious injury or lost a loved one in an accident involving a tire blowout in Central Florida please contact a Lakeland tire blowout attorney for a free consultation. Having a car accident lawyer will help you determine what claims you have as well as which claims are your best avenue to pursue.
See Our Blog
For recent legal topics, please see our personal injury blog or read our answers to frequently asked questions. We help clients located in Polk County, including Lakeland, Winter Haven, Bartow, and Haines City, Florida sue the manufacturers and retailers of defective tires that were the cause of a blowout.
