Truck Injury Lawyer Blog : Truck Accident Lawyer & Attorney: Morgan Adams : Contingency Fee Truck Accident Lawyer

I have previously discussed the dangers of old tires in a prior blog. It is a topic that remains an ongoing concern because there are still vendors selling old tires and people driving on old tires. In short, people are still dying from preventable wrecks due to old dangerous tires.

In keeping up on this topic for my litigation practice I ran across the Safety Research & Strategies site and its additional links to government sources and reports on old tires. The site is outstanding and well worth a review for anyone interested in this topic . The SRS tire material can be checked out here.

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It has been 37 years since the current tire regulations for commercial motor vehicles (CMV) were enacted. At that time the maximum weight of a CMV was 73,280 pounds and the maximum speed was 55 mph. Now most CMV's carry 80,000 pounds and regularly exceed 65 mph. Tires have not kept up with the increasing speeds and weights, resulting in the tragedies we read about in the newspaper and see on the news. Having to deal with the aftermath of these tragedies every day, I am thankful the regulations are finally getting updated.

The current regulation is set forth in Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 119 which can be found at FMCSR 571.119.   The purpose of this standard is to provide safe operational performance levels for tires and enough information on tires to permit their proper selection and use. The notice of proposed rulemaking was published in the September 29, 2010 Federal Register.

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I have previously posted on how dangerous old and defective tires are, and on how to determine the age of your tires. A jury recently agreed that tires can be dangerous and defective and returned a verdict against Cooper Tires for 28 Million dollars.

The Iowa jury listened to the argument that Cooper trial put savings first and safety second in making its decision. Given the horrible losses that were involved I know the family would rather have their loved ones back. This was an accident that the jury found did not need to happen and Cooper Tires paid hte price for cutting corners. 

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I was speaking to my friend Leigh May in Atlanta, a great products liability lawyer who has handled a number of defective tire cases with major results, and she was kind enough to review my blog on old and defective tires. She made an excellent point that the spare tire is often overlooked when people change their tires. I have always looked at tire issues from the standpoint of a truck accident attorney and how the tire defect contributed to truck rollovers and loss of control by drivers. However, from my own experience, I can tell you I used to change out all my tires - except the spare - as routine practice! The fact is that by the time the spare is actually used, it is often way beyond its safe shelf life.

The lesson to be learned is that, for safety, when you change out your tires make sure you include the spare! The few extra dollars it costs you to replace a spare tire are worth it to prevent some of the horrible tragedies that Leigh and I have seen over the years.

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Tire separation is a huge danger on the roadways, both for personal vehicles and for commercial vehicles.

With personal cars the danger lies in the fact that most people are unaware of how to determine how old their tires are, and that old tires, even with good tread, pose a danger. The service centers that sell old tires to the public are under no such illusion and need to be held accountable for pushing these tires on the unsuspecting public.

With commercial vehicles the danger lies in the fact that some professional drivers will buy old tires because they are cheaper, deliberately ignoring the safety risk.The accidents caused by commercial drivers with bad tires are willful, wanton acts of gross negligence.

When the tire was made. Every tire has a Department of Transportation (DOT) number following the letters on the sidewall. The last four digits determine the week and year the tire was made; for example, the digits 2204 would signify that the tire was made during the 22nd week of 2004. Don't buy tires more than two years old and replace tires if they are six years old (although manufacturers generally recommend 10 years). For the risk posed by old tires see the excellent ABC News Video Special Report 

Tire manufactures don't want you to know the age of their product for some reason. The websites they put out show how to "read a tire" but neglect to inform consumers how old the tire is. See: Goodyear, Perelli, or Michelin to name just a few.

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