The Lake Jackson tire defect lawyers at Denena & Points have mentioned before the critical importance of sound tires to your safety on the road. Your tires are the only part of your vehicle designed to be in direct contact with the roadway. The tires’ good condition is necessary for the safe operation of your vehicle.
The condition of your tires can have a dramatic effect on vehicle handling, road traction, braking effectiveness, and ability to negotiate curves and turns. Defective, worn, or poorly maintained tires can suddenly fail. When your tire fails, you’re likely to lose control of the vehicle and experience a drastic wreck. Then parts of your vehicle never intended to contact the roadway could meet the asphalt and concrete in a hard landing.
Our Lake Jackson tire defect lawyers point out that one of the easiest elements of tire safety to control is proper inflation. Overinflation, underinflation, and unequal inflation of tires are all problems you might face. But regular checks of your tires’ pressure and corrections to inadequacies in inflation could extend the life of your tires and yourself by helping you to avoid catastrophic wrecks from tire failure.
Research has indicated that up to half of the cars on U.S. roads could be riding on one or more tires that are underinflated. Underinflated tires put more of the tread in contact with the ground. Your vehicle becomes more difficult to control as one or more tires become more underinflated. The condition can cause additional friction and also flexion in the sidewall that causes excessive heat to build up within the tire. The excess heat could lead to tire tread separation, tire failure in a blowout, and a rollover wreck. Even before the tire fails, your vehicle might “wallow” on underinflated tires. The vehicle will ride slower and get lower fuel economy.
Our Lake Jackson tire defect lawyers caution that you can’t accurately determine if your tires are properly inflated just by looking at them. A visual inspection might show that your radial tires are bulging slightly, but modern tire design results in this effect even when the tires are properly inflated. You need to make a regular check, at least monthly, of your tires’ pressure.
Follow the tire pressure recommended by your vehicle’s manufacturer. You can usually find a notice indicating the recommended tore pressure inside the glove compartment, on the doorjamb, or on the fuel tank door. You need your cold tire pressure. Measure the tires’ pressure (psi) while the tire is still cold to obtain an accurate reading. It’s best to take your pressure reading and make pressure corrections before you start driving or when you have driven no more than a mile or two. Once you have driven any farther and the air inside the tire has begun to heat up, it becomes difficult to accurately inflate the tire. You can get your own inexpensive tire pressure gauge at an auto parts store.
Taking proper care of your tires enhances your safety on the road in your vehicle. But sometimes tires leave the factory with hidden manufacturing defects you won’t know about until a recall announcement arrives or you suffer a catastrophic wreck. If you’ve been injured in a wreck caused by a defective tire, download our Lake Jackson tire defect lawyers’ free book on the steps you need to take to make a successful car injury compensation claim