Philadelphia Injury Attorney Blog

Imagine that you are driving your vehicle down the roadway and suddenly, without warning, your tire tread separates, causing you to lose control of your vehicle. If your vehicle has a high center of gravity, there is a good likelihood that the vehicle will roll over and the roof may crush onto your body. If you are luckier, you may only just lose control, striking a guardrail or wall. These are common scenarios resulting from a tire detread incident.

As consumers, we have the right to expect that the products we purchase, including tires, are safe for use. If a tire detreads, it may simply be due to a manufacturing or design defect. However, many times manufacturers know of a problem but failed to warn the consumer of a known danger. A significant number of vehicle crashes and rollovers are caused by tire detreads or failures even when the user who purchased the tire believes that the tires were safe based upon a cursory inspection.

Continue reading "When Your Tire Tread Separates, You May Be On the Road to Disastrous Consequences and Life Changing Injuries" »

How many times have you been driving down the highway and seen treads, shredded tires, or torn pieces of tires sitting on the side of the road on the shoulder. The sale of used tires and retreaded tires is booming. While a significant number of vehicle crashes are caused as a result of tire failures, and even though the purchaser believed they were getting safe tires based upon the visual conditions, many times the bargain leads to a catastrophic accident. Many times tires possess defects that cannot be easily detected visually. Oxidation or micro-cracks in tires can lead to a catastrophic tread or belt separation. However, unfortunately, the age of a tire does not prevent it from being sold at a cheap price on the used tire market or the retread market.

We recently successfully resolved a case where a tire experienced a belt separation causing the vehicle to lose control. The tire manufacturer claimed there was no defect on the tire. Most times, the tire installer or customer does not possess the ability to spot loose cords or belt separation in a tire, and unfortunately used tires are not subject to any federal standards. The road fitness of a tire is governed only under state tread depth laws.

Every year thousands of people will die and even more will be catastrophically injured due to the use of defective retread tires on vehicles. Environmentalists claim that retreading tires saves huge amounts of natural resources as opposed to replacing worn tires. However, safety should always take priority over profitability. Simply put, retread tires are second hand tires that have just been recoated with a tread veneer creating a potentially volatile situation.

Continue reading "A Tire Tread Separation Often Results In Lose Of Control Of A Vehicle With Tragic Consequences" »

Recently, there have been a host of automotive product liability accident claims involving tire manufacturers where a tread has separated from a tire causing a lack of stability and a rollover situation. When a tire delaminates and the tread in many instances separates, the driver is unable to maintain control of the vehicle, often leading to catastrophic injuries including paraplegia and many times, unfortunately, to fatalities. Tire tread separations are a byproduct of steel belted radial tire technology and are caused by the difficulty in obtaining a proper adhesion of steel to rubber, particularly when a vehicle is traveling at high speeds in hot weather.

Industry sources indicate that tire tread belt separations are the most common mode of failure for steel belted radial tires and result from both design and manufacturing product defects. Many times the result of tread separation is catastrophic. When a tread comes off a vehicle traveling at a high speed, the driver will sometimes notice a loud thumping noise before the vehicle goes out of control. Many times tread separation can be due to contamination of the materials used to make the tire. Additionally, tire manufactures attempt to shift the burden of defective tire accidents to the victim of the accident claiming that tread separation was a result of impact damage or under-inflation.

If you or a loved one have been a victim of a tire failure or tread separation accident, it is important to seek the services of an experienced lawyer to pursue a claim. For a free, no fee, no obligation consultation, please contact one of our experienced Pennsylvania vehicle defect lawyers at 1-800-421-9595 or online at www.reiffandbily.com.