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.

A South Texas jury returned a nearly $12 million verdict against the nation’s largest tire maker after finding defective tires caused a wreck that killed six people.

According to a news story published in the McAllen Monitor, the jury found that a manufacturing flaw in a Goodrich tire — made by South Carolina-based Michelin North America — substantially contributed to the New Year’s Eve 2006 crash that occurred just outside Matamoros.

The tire on a 2002 Ford F-250 pickup shredded, forcing the truck into oncoming traffic where it collided with a Chevy Suburban, killing all six passengers and leaving a 10-year old boy in the pickup paralyzed.

Throughout the trial, attorneys argued that leaks in the roof of a Tuscaloosa, Ala., manufacturing plant had damaged the machinery used to make hundreds of tires. The faulty tire on the pickup truck was among that batch.

Defects like this kill people every day. Don’t fight this kind of battle alone. If you or someone you love has been injured in Texas car wreck, contact an experienced Texas car wreck attorney or defective product lawyer for professional insight.

The automaker Toyota is being vague about a defective steering relay rod.

The rod connects the pitman arm to the steering center link.  The problem is occurring in about a million light trucks and SUVs built between 1989 to 1998.

The rod has a tendency to snap causing a total loss of steering while the vehicle is in motion thus causing a disastrous truck wreck.

Toyota knew about the malfunction yet did not issue a recall.  It finally took a child’s death and a lawsuit to bring the problem to the public.  Toyota eventually issued a recall yet they have only successfully repaired about 32 percent of the defected vehicles.

Factoring in the vehicles that have been wrecked or junked, the total number of faulty vehicles on U.S. roads today is still about 500,000!