In Texas, if your tire has a hidden defect from the manufacturing process, or if it’s old or worn, you’re more likely to have a dangerous blowout or tire tread separation in the summer. Our Galveston tire blowout accident attorneys remark that this is because heat buildup in a tire stresses and weakens the tire.
Heat builds up naturally in any tire in use due to friction with the roadway, vehicle travel speed, and the load the tire bears. Automakers and tire manufacturers have known for a long time that your chances of a dangerous rollover crash due to tire tread separation or a blowout increase with a tire’s age because a tire’s age and wear increase its susceptibility to heat stress and fatigue.
But most vehicle owners and drivers remain unaware of the links between tire age, heat, and tire blowouts or tread separations. The Galveston tire blowout accident attorneys at Denena Points, PCmention that your tire is coded with the week and year of the tire’s manufacture, but you might not have known the date was there or you might be unable to pick it out of the long string of numbers in which it’s embedded.
Even if you don’t drive that much and you know that your tire is not worn, the tire has aged with the passage of time no matter how much use it has received. Tire aging results from thermo-oxidative degradation of the internal rubber that bonds the tires belts together. The oxidation process takes place over time and is accelerated by heat. With age and heat, tire composition materials become less elastic, more brittle, and more likely to crack throughout the tire tread.
Especially in the hot, sunny climates of the South and Southwest, crack propagation begins almost from the moment your tire is placed into service beginning at the high-stress internal belt edge. Our Galveston tire blowout accident attorneys caution that improper inflation of a tire and overloading of a vehicle also increases the threatening effects of tire aging and heat stress.
You should always remain aware of your tire’s age and replace the tire before the internal cracks lead to a dangerous blowout or tread separation and rollover accident. Sudden tire blowouts or tread separations could cause you to lose control of your vehicle at a critical moment. Particularly if you are traveling at advanced highway speeds, our Galveston tire blowout accident attorneys point out that the loss of control could cause your vehicle to flip over in a rollover accident, resulting in severe or fatal injuries. Click the link to learn about a recent tire blowout accident in Texas that led to a dangerous rollover and hospitalized several people.