Long and frequent drives are something many Houstonians are all too familiar with. Drivers trust their vehicles will be able to get them to their destinations safely. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always happen as unsuspected defects can compromise even the most important components of vehicles—including tires.
Why Tire Defects Happen
Tire defects can occur for a multitude of different reasons; however, the most common causes occur during the design and/or manufacturing process. Overworked tire manufacturers aiming to produce a certain amount of tires per day in their quota can produce defective and oftentimes deadly products. Even tires that show no physical signs of a defect can be incredibly dangerous depending on their age and condition. Some of the most common tire defects include:
Tread separation
Belt separation
Improper tire puncture repair
Tires made without separation prevention design features
Tires not suitable for vehicle type
Retread failure
Tires damaged during the mounting process
Manufacturing and design defects
Old and aged tires
Zipper failures
Side wall blow outs
Bead defects
Foreign materials manufactured into the tire
Trapped internal air pockets inside the tire
Accidents and Injuries Caused by Tire Defects
When a person unknowingly drives with a defective tire, many different types of accidents can occur. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), at least 11,000 tire-related crashes occur each year. For instance, a defective tire can explode while being inflated, resulting in serious injuries. Tire explosions, blowouts, and tread and belt separations can each cause a serious motor vehicle accident and resulting injuries. Some of the most common types of accidents involving defective tires include:
Loss of control
In the event a defective tire blows out or explodes unexpectedly, drivers commonly lose control of their vehicles, causing skidding, swerving, spinning, and rollovers to occur. This can lead to a single-car accident or an accident involving multiple vehicles.
Rollovers
A rollover occurs when a vehicle rolls onto its side or roof. According to NHTSA, rollovers have the highest fatality rate of any type of vehicle crash. Tire failures and defects can lead to dangerous rollover accidents and devastating, if not fatal, injuries.
Running off the road
A defective tire can cause a car to run off the road entirely or into an opposite lane causing the driver to be involved in a head-on collision with others driving in the opposite direction. Though rare, head-on collisions are incredibly deadly due to the high vehicle speeds involved.
Injuries caused by defective tire accidents
Accidents caused by defective tires can result in serious injuries and even death. Some of the most common tire defect accident injuries include:
When a defective tire causes a car accident that results in a catastrophic injury or death, victims and their families often may not know who can be held accountable. Defective tires are incredibly dangerous and the negligent parties that designed and/or manufactured them should be held accountable. At Ramsey Law Group, we fight for our clients to receive the compensation and assistance they deserve. Our lawyers have successfully handled tire defect cases against many of the largest tire manufacturers in the world. To date, we have successfully pursued in excess of 100 tire defect cases against Firestone, Bridgestone, Goodyear, Uniroyal, BF Goodrich, Michelin, Cooper, Nexen, Yokohama, General, Continental, Pirelli, Armstrong, and Dunlop, to name a few. Our experiences in pursuing cases against tire manufacturers have taken us all over the state of Texas and into over a dozen additional states in the U.S. We would be honored to help your family. If you or someone you know has been in an accident due to a defective tire, contact us today for a free consultation.
