JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE SAFE

In the USA one of the major contributors to road accidents is tyre failure. The new so-called high performance tyres significantly feature in the statistics. Tread separation on steel belted radials is common enough of a problem for there to be lawyers specialising in litigation relating to this.

Here is a what I found on the web:

http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/52597/car_parts/accidents_caused_by_tire_tread_separation.html

and a precis:

Most tires made for the cars that we drive today are steel belted radial tires. The most common defect in steel belted radial tires is tire tread separation. When you add these two facts together, you find that the most common tire defect on the cars we drive is tire tread separation, which can have dangerous and devastating effects for the drivers and passengers of the affected car as well as the people in whatever car happens to be hit by the first car going out of control.

Tire tread separation, which causes the tires to blow out, can drive a car completely out of control. This effect is even worse when the car is traveling at highway speeds, adding a new element of danger. A car with a blown out tire might travel into oncoming traffic, swerve into an extremely dangerous situation like toward a cliff edge, or can roll over, causing damage and possibly further collisions and injuries.

Tire tread separation is an incredibly dangerous possibility, but there is no way to know if your tires are in danger of coming apart short of noticing the early evidence of separation. An accident caused by this defect in the tire's manufacturing could cause grave injuries to your family and loved ones as well as to people in other vehicles should your car go out of control or your sports utility vehicle flip over and roll.

On Sunday night when returning to Auckland I was travelling at about 100km and about 8 km's north of Wellsford there was an almighty noise from under the car and it was difficult to control. I pulled over as quickly as I could thinking the motor had blown up. A quick check underneath (not exactly reassuring when trucks and cars hurtle past on the open road) I established that the front left tyre was disintegrating. 

 The tread in fact was unravelling and the tyre was down to the steel belt on half of it. The unravelled portion had fortunately stayed on long enough to bang underneath the car alerting me to the fact before it totally failed and then it would have been goodnight nurse.

I drove about 80 metres further on to a layby so I could change the tyre. I forgot that  I was driving the Old Girl's car, the Peugeot 206. As I rummaged in the boot I thought WTF there's no spare. I checked the car manual to confirm that this model, the GTi does not in fact have a spare wheel. It has a gas cannister to inflate the low-profile tyre if there is a puncture. A fat lot of use this is when the bloody tyre has disintegrated. What to do? I tried phoning the Old Girl but I was in one of those cell-phone black-out areas.

I put the hazard blinkers on (a great device this) and crawled along the verge for the 8 km to some sort of civilisation (well, it wasn't Palmerston North). 

The first service station I called in to didn't have anything to do with tyres. In fact the attendant just stared at me blankly when I asked if they had a tyre bay. I had to repeat 3 times and point to the car. "Oh, tyres for a car" he said probably thinking I wanted some sort of toy. I could have, after all purchased bread, milk, Weetbix and cuddly toys there . How stupid of me thinking that they would sell parts for automobiles. 

I put the hazard lights on again and drove slowly off to the other service petrol and grocery station at the southern end of town. This one a Caltex. As expected a request for tyre repair was met with blank incomprehension.

I phoned the Old Girl again and fortunately this time got through. I explained my predicament and said that I would park the car up in Wellsford and could she come and pick me up in the Rover (the car with a spare wheel in the boot). The Old Girl, annoyingly, used that female logic, you know, the old 'if its broke, get a man in to fix it". This is totally alien to blokes who, regardless of their mechanical inabilities would rather exhaust all other possibilities before asking for help. She said that she would phone AA. We are members of AA and very rarely use them. Sure enough, in a few minutes AA rang and said that the Old Girl had reported the problem and that they could arrange a tow truck to Auckland. As members we were entitled to a free tow but because of the distance away from Auckland there would be a top up fee. $270 top up fee. I thought for a moment and then said OK. After only 20 minutes the truck arrived (he came from Warkworth, 20 minutes closer to Auckland) and put the car on the back and took me home ( or at least to Beaurepairs where I left the car overnight). Next morning I arrived at Beaurepairs before opening and explained the situation when the franchise owner arrived (nice guy by the name of Owen). We arranged a replacement tyre and, to be safe, replacement of the right hand front tyre as well as they had the same age/wear. Kaching! $570 ( inclusive of wheel balancing.).

Going back to that USA situation there is good argument in tackling the tyre manufacturers. The problem is that the tyres were old (still legal) but proof of faulty manufacture is compromised by age, wear and tear, variability of inflation pressures and incorrect wheel balancing. The stuff of lawyers income. Going back again though to the USA situation, the argument is that safety and quality is being compromised by the greed for volume manufacture and sales.

If here or there there is proof that the tyre manufacturers have been at fault and have caused mnay accidents, injuries and deaths then I know what I'd like to see happen to them.