There are more than 10,000 injuries resulting from tire failures each year, and many of these lead to personal injury lawsuits. Tire defects include tread and belt separation problems, tire inflation problems, and sidewall failures.
Tire Tread and Belt Separation
Steel belted radial tires have the potential for belt and tread separation due to the difficulty of obtaining rubber to steel adhesion. This is especially true when driving at high speeds during hot weather. The problem with tread and belt separation is due to both manufacturing and design defects.
Many things can contribute to these defects, such as using over-aged stock, foreign matter being cured into the tire, petroleum solvents being used on tire components before vulcanization, improper tire repairs, and inadequate final inspection.
When the tread wears down on these tires, the steel belt becomes exposed. When this happens, the driver can lose control of the car, because the tire blows out.
Tire Inflation Explosion
Tire explosions during inflation lead to serious and sometime fatal accidents. One cause of a tire inflation explosion is bead failures. The bead wire is the weakest part of the tire. If the bead wire is weak, the tire can explode during inflation if it is overfilled.
Sidewall failures, also known as zipper failures, can occur while a tire is being inflated. The sidewall of the tire fails, often injuring the person inflating the tire, as well as bystanders. They are known as zipper failures because of the appearance of the sidewall after it explodes.
There have also been problems with multi-piece wheel explosions. Most tires today are made with a single-piece, but there are still multi-piece wheels being manufactured. This type of wheel has several components that rely on the air pressure in the tire to hold them together. This results in potential problems during vehicular motion, repair, and when mounting the tires.
Tire Failure Warning Signs
It is possible to detect some tire defects by watching out for some warning signs. Some of these signs include:
- Vehicle starts shaking while you are driving.
- You feel a vibration come from the tires.
- Your vehicle pulls to one side.
- Cracking in the sidewalls on the tire.
- Excessive or uneven tread wear.
- Bulges or blisters along the tire's thread.
If you experience the above warning signs, you should take your car to a mechanic to examine the tires.
If you have an accident due to defective tires, you should contact a personal injury lawyer to assist you. Visit a site like http://caminezlaw.net for help with finding a lawyer.
