Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer Blog
As we move deeper into September and the autumn season, the temperatures and leaves will begin to fall. But before we can start enjoying hot cider and apple picking, Mother Nature has a few more weeks of summer heat in store for Chicago. These warmer temperatures increase the likelihood of tire blowouts which can not only be annoying to drivers but also a safety concern. Tire blowouts are incredibly dangerous as they can cause serious motor vehicle accidents which tend to lead to injuries to those involved.
Tire blowouts are more likely to occur when the weather is hot than they are when temperatures are mild. Warm temperatures make the surface of a road hot which can lead to increased friction between a tire and the road. This friction creates heat which puts greater stress on the tire’s components, increasing the odds that the tire will fail. Tires that are underinflated further struggle to accommodate the weight of the vehicle, causing the tires to become overloaded and increasing the friction they normally experience on the roadway.
The heat can also force the air inside your tires to expand, and when the inflated tires come into contact with a heated surface like the asphalt on the roads the added friction increases the likelihood of a blowout occurring. Moving at high speeds only intensifies the friction.
Thus, it is especially important for drivers to monitor their vehicle’s tire pressure when the temperature rises.
When a tire blowout occurs at high speeds, like when one is traveling on the freeway, the incident is more likely to cause damage or a serious car accident in Chicago. If a blowout occurs while traveling at slower speeds, the driver may be able to retain control of the vehicle and pull to the side of the road without causing damage. However, if a blowout occurs when traveling at high speeds it can be very difficult for the driver to maintain control of the car, affecting not only that driver but also other drivers and passengers in nearby vehicles.
When a tire blowout occurs the vehicle will be pulled to the side where the tire has blown. At high speeds, this pull can be drastic and frightening to those who are unaware of why the vehicle is being pulled in a direction other than forward. This would obviously shock the driver and as a result drivers are likely to react by trying to correct the vehicle or by breaking hard. However, this often causes the driver to lose complete control of the vehicle causing the vehicle to spin out or roll over. If a spin out occurs amidst heavy traffic on a highway, the damage to the driver, passengers, and other vehicles on the road can be severe. Tire blowouts at high speeds are also likely to cause rollover accidents which is one of the most deadly motor vehicle collisions.
Hopefully your summer has been accident free and you and your family continue through September without issue. However if you have experienced a tire blowout accident and you or a loved one were injured you may have a legal right to seek relief for your damages through a personal injury claim.
Prior Blog Entry:
Why Multi Vehicle Collisions are So Common in Chicago, Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer Blog, published September 16, 2016.
Resources:
Preventing Tire Blowouts in the Summer Heat, by Andy Lundin, automotive FLEET, published July 2016.
Extreme heat can cause tire blowouts, by Angelo Caruso, KESQ News Channel 3 & CBS Local 2, published June 17, 2015.