Because of the publicity surrounding the Ford/Firestone litigation, tire failures have been reported with increasing frequency.
Although most of us will log thousands of miles in our lifetimes without so much as an air leak, tire failures can and do occur regularly. Many of these failures can be directly attributed to manufacturing defects, design defects or a tire manufacturer’s failure to warn of dangers inherent in their products.
These dangers have been known to the tire industry for years. Tire manufacturers know that tire treads will wear with proper use and at some point fail if not serviced properly and replaced after their intended period of use has expired.
So, tire failures, blowouts and de-treads are foreseeable events.
Although not all fire failures result in serious accidents, the sudden failure of a tire can cause a vehicle to lose ocntrol an droll over or collide with other vehicles on the road. Tire failures are especially dangerous if the vehicle is traveling at highway speeds.
Tire tread separation can be caused by bonding problems in the tire manufacturing process, contaminants introduced into the tire during the tire-making process, under vulcanization, old ingredients, improper sized components or something as simple as air being trapped between the layers of the tire during the tire manufacturing process.
When the tread separates on these defective tires, it can result in single- or multi-vehicle accidents, or even rollovers.
Even auto manufacturers agree that drivers should be able to pull over, not rollover, when a tire de-treads. This, unfortunately, is not always the case.
Tags: rollover, tire defect