Bald Tires / Tire Blowout

Tires on trucks are carefully regulated to help ensure they do not suffer tread or sidewall separation or other problems. Bald tires or a tire blowout could cause a truck to go out of control and may lead to a deadly collision.

Truckers need to regularly inspect their tires, and trucking companies need to follow maintenance and inspection rules set by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). If negligent maintenance leads to bald tires or tire blowouts, drivers and trucking companies may be to blame for a resulting crash. Tire manufacturers may also be at fault if there is a tire defect that leads to a collision. Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner, Attorneys for the Injured can help victims to pursue a damage claim. Call 800-646-1210 for a free consultation.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Large Truck Crash Causation Study reveals:

• Tire blow-outs or flat tires were the cause of 294 single vehicle truck crashes. This is two percent of truck collisions.
• Tire blow-outs or flat tires on trucks caused 344 multi-vehicle collisions. This is eight percent of truck crashes.
• In total, three percent of truck collisions involved the truck loosing control as a result of a tire blow out or flat.

Tire blow-outs and flats can occur because of:

• High mileage on tires causing low tread or no tread.
• Bad spare tires.
• The use of the wrong size tires for the truck.
• Tires that are over-inflated.
• Tires that are under-inflated.
• Poorly recapped tire tread.
• Defective or badly designed tires.

When a blowout happens, the truck may roll or spin out of control. Because the risk of a crash is so high, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has strict rules to ensure that tires are in good condition and to reduce incidences of blowout.

Under FMCSA rules, any tire on the front wheels of a bus, truck or tractor must have a “tread groove pattern depth of at least 4/32 of an inch when measured at any point on a major tread groove.” Measurements are not taken at areas where there are humps, tie bars or fillets.

Tires should be checked as part of a trucker’s daily required inspection, as well as during periodic and annual inspections. When roadside inspections occur, tires will also be checked. If a truck driver or trucking company operates a vehicle with unsafe tires, this can result in legal liability for collisions caused by blowouts or flats.

Tires can also be defective from the manufacturer. Tire recalls are strong evidence that a manufacturer is responsible for a blow out or a flat and that the manufacturer should be sued in a product liability case.

Victims of truck accidents seeking compensation for damages will need to prove that a trucker, trucking company or manufacturer was responsible for the crash as result of a tire problem. Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner, Attorneys for the Injured has more than four decades of experience helping injured victims after truck accidents. Call 800-646-1210 today to schedule a free consultation with our Florida trucking accidents lawyers.