Tire defects are responsible for tens of thousands of injuries and deaths each year, primarily from tread separations and blowouts, but also from mounting and inflation accidents. A large number of these accidents are due to design or manufacturing defects in the tires.             
     Blowouts may be caused by many things, such as punctures, or worn out tires, but often they are due to manufacturing defects that cause tread and belt separations. It is not hard to find news of the tragic consequences of these accidents. Recently, the Firestone recall of 6.5 million tires has made the news, but it is by no means the only tire company with tread separation problems. Goodyear, Cooper, and Continental General have recently had these same kinds of complaints.

Tire inflation explosions are also a source of frequent litigation.

      Government Regulations - Since public awareness has been raised recently, Congress has attempted to require that the level of tire performance be raised. Many of the old regulations were so ineffective that they were not even relied upon by the manufacturers. Not surprisingly, the tire industry finds fault with many of the new proposed, more strict regulations. Regardless of what regulations are finally passed, the government does not have the manpower to effectively police the tire manufacturers, and will probably have to continue to rely on self reporting and certification by each tire maker.

     Tire Litigation is highly specialized and costly – generally involving several years’ work and hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs to do the job properly. Besides tire experts, these cases usually require experts in accident reconstruction, vehicle dynamics, biomechanical engineering, seatbelts, metallurgy, human factors, and warnings.

     There are numerous issues specific to the typical tire case. Tire companies often have a corporate “reorganization” policy that makes it difficult to determine who are the correct parties. Documents are routinely destroyed pursuant to a corporate “document retention policy”, and those that do exist are almost always claimed to be confidential trade secrets. Tire companies will not produce any significant documents without a fight and multiple court orders. For these reasons there are a limited number of trial attorneys experienced in, and willing to handle, these complex tire cases.

For a recommendation of experienced tire attorneys in your area,  click here. 

To report a defective tire to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), click here.