Defective or poorly maintained tires can cause a truck accident and serious injuries or deaths warns Philadelphia truck accident lawyer Rand Spear.
The technology and reliability of tires has much improved over the years. As good as they have become, tires fail and that is especially dangerous at highway speeds and even more so if that blown tire is on a commercial truck. Tire defects can result in serious commercial truck accidents says Philadelphia truck accident lawyer Rand Spear.
A tractor-trailer driver was killed and two other people seriously injured in a three-vehicle accident in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, in December, according to Fox 431. State police reported that:
- The driver side front tire on a dump truck travelling southbound on I-81 failed.
- The driver lost control, the truck crossed the median and hit a northbound tractor trailer head on. A northbound pickup was also involved in the accident.
- The driver of the tractor trailer was killed. The drivers of the other vehicles had to be flown from the scene for medical care.
A safe, properly inflated tire can keep your car on the road in slippery conditions and enable your vehicle to stop to avoid a serious accident. If things go wrong tires can become dangerous and be the cause of serious injuries and fatalities. There are many things that can go wrong with tires.
- Tread detachments (where the tread comes off the carcass of the tire) are the most frequent tire failures that can result in a loss of control of the vehicle. Possible causes include under inflation, overloading the vehicle, excessive speed, unrepaired tire damage, poorly performed repairs, impacts to the tire (such as with a pot hole or curb), improper mounting, tire age, vehicle misalignment and rusting of the tire’s steel belts.
- Retread tires are very common on commercial trucks. They have a reputation for losing their tread but a bigger problem may be defects with the tire casing upon which the treads are installed. Defects may be difficult to detect during an inspection because they’re hidden underneath the components of the tire.
- The use of retreads on steering axles is generally avoided in the trucking industry though laws only prohibit their use on the steering axles of school buses.
- Mistakes made while servicing truck tires, including mounting, inflating, and handling of tires and wheels, can result in a dangerous situation on the road but also in the shop. Mishandling these very large tires, inflated at high pressures, commonly cause catastrophic and fatal injuries to tire mechanics.
- A rapid release of the energy stored up in a tire can result in the injury to anyone in the path of escaping air and objects propelled by it. Though all tires pose some risk, tires on large commercial vehicles are so potentially dangerous that there are federal regulations stating specific guidelines for handling them and requiring training for those working on them.
If you or a loved one has been injured or killed in a Pennsylvania or New Jersey commercial truck accident, contact an experienced motor vehicle accident lawyer right away. Your lawyer can answer your questions and help you determine the next steps in your case.
Contact us or call Philadelphia truck accident lawyer Rand Spear today at 888-373-4LAW today to discuss your case with a knowledgeable vehicle accident attorney.
Footnotes:
1 Fox 43 http://fox43.com/2016/12/28/fatal-i-81-crash-claims-life-of-truck-driver-two-others-injured/
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