A tire blowout can cause a driver to lose control within seconds. These accidents can involve passenger cars, work vehicles, rental vehicles, delivery vans, or large commercial trucks. Depending on the vehicle’s speed and location, a blowout can cause it to cross several lanes, strike another vehicle, roll over, or leave dangerous debris across the roadway.
After a serious crash, responsibility may extend beyond the driver. A vehicle owner, employer, trucking company, maintenance provider, tire shop, manufacturer, seller, cargo loader, or another party may have contributed to the failure. Determining what happened can require examining the tire, maintenance history, vehicle records, cargo information, and crash-scene evidence.
How Do Tire Blowouts Happen?
A blowout happens when a tire fails and rapidly loses air. The tread can separate, the sidewall can rupture, or parts of the tire can break away. Some blowouts are caused by an impact with debris or a large pothole, while others develop after prolonged use in an unsafe condition.
Common factors that can contribute to a tire blowout include:
- Underinflation, overinflation, or recurring pressure loss
- Excessive tread wear, aging, cracks, cuts, or bulges
- Tread separation or defective tire construction
- Improper installation, maintenance, or repairs
- Excessive heat buildup
- Overloading or uneven weight distribution
- Road impacts, poor alignment, or suspension problems
A tire may appear to fail suddenly even though the underlying problem developed over many miles. That is why the condition of the tire before the crash and the vehicle’s maintenance history can become central issues in an accident investigation.
Could the Driver, Vehicle Owner, or Employer Be Responsible?
Responsibility can depend on who knew about the tire problem, who controlled maintenance decisions, and whether reasonable action was taken once a warning sign appeared.
The driver. A driver may be responsible when the evidence shows they knew or reasonably should have known the tire was unsafe but continued operating the vehicle anyway. This can apply whether the vehicle was personal, company-owned, or a commercial truck. Warning signs might include low tire pressure, recurring pressure loss, visible cracks, uneven tread wear, vibration, pulling, or a dashboard warning light. In commercial vehicle cases, inspection records, dashboard data, photographs, communications, and testimony can help show whether a warning sign was reported or reasonably should have been noticed.
The vehicle owner. An owner can be responsible for inspection, maintenance, and replacement decisions. Key questions typically include who controlled the vehicle, whether a problem was reported, and whether recommended repairs were delayed.
The employer. An employer may share responsibility when an employee was driving for work, depending on the relationship between the parties, who controlled maintenance decisions, and whether the employee was acting within the scope of the job.
When Is a Trucking Company Liable?
Commercial truck cases typically involve additional inspection, repair, and maintenance requirements. A trucking company may share responsibility if it failed to maintain an adequate inspection schedule, ignored reported tire problems, delayed necessary repairs, used unsuitable tires, kept incomplete records, or pressured a driver to continue operating an unsafe vehicle. Applicable federal safety requirements should be reviewed based on the vehicle and circumstances involved. The relationships among the driver, carrier, vehicle owner, and any other businesses involved may also affect responsibility.
Could a Repair Shop, Tire Installer, or Maintenance Contractor Be Responsible?
Passenger vehicle owners and commercial carriers commonly rely on repair shops, tire stores, installers, dealerships, and outside maintenance companies. One of these businesses may share responsibility if careless inspection, installation, repair, or maintenance contributed to the blowout.
A service provider may be involved if it failed to identify visible damage, installed the wrong type or size of tire, used improper inflation pressure, mounted the tire incorrectly, performed an unsafe repair, or represented that a tire was safe when replacement was needed.
Can the Tire Manufacturer or Seller Be Liable?
Some blowouts occur because of a defect in the tire itself rather than a failure to inspect or maintain it. A tire manufacturer, distributor, or seller can be liable when a design problem, manufacturing defect, or inadequate warning contributes to an accident.
Possible defects can include weak bonding between tire components, belt or tread separation, contaminated materials, improper curing, or structural weaknesses in the sidewall. Technical analysis may be needed to determine whether a defect contributed to the tire’s failure.
How Can Improper Loading or Excessive Weight Cause a Blowout?
Excessive weight can place additional stress on tires in passenger vehicles, work vehicles, trailers, and commercial trucks. A vehicle may be overloaded with equipment, luggage, materials, passengers, or cargo. Even when the total weight appears acceptable, uneven distribution can place excessive pressure on one tire or axle.
A cargo loading company, shipping company, warehouse, or another business may share responsibility if it exceeded safe weight limits, concentrated too much weight in one area, failed to secure shifting cargo, or provided inaccurate weight information. Cargo and weight records can help show how the vehicle was loaded and whether the driver, owner, employer, or trucking company had an opportunity to identify the problem.
Could a Dangerous Road Condition Contribute to a Blowout?
A severe pothole, exposed roadway material, construction debris, or another road hazard may contribute to a blowout. Depending on the circumstances, potentially responsible parties can include the government entity responsible for maintaining the road, a construction or paving contractor working on the roadway, a utility company that disturbed the surface, or a property owner whose actions caused debris or material to end up on the road.
Whether a road condition supports a claim depends on the specific facts and applicable law. Responsibility can depend on who created or controlled the condition, whether it had been reported, and whether there was a reasonable opportunity to repair it or warn drivers. Claims involving a government entity may be subject to special notice rules, legal protections, and shorter timeframes.
Why Inspection and Maintenance Records Matter
Records created before the crash can show when the tire was installed, whether it was inspected, how long it had been used, and whether earlier problems or recommended repairs were documented. Relevant records might include:
- Vehicle and driver inspection reports
- Preventive maintenance schedules, repair invoices, and work orders
- Tire purchase, installation, warranty, recall, and identification records
- Tire-pressure and tread-depth records
- Recommendations from dealerships, tire shops, or mechanics
- Roadside inspection reports and earlier reports of tire problems
- Communications among owners, drivers, employers, dispatchers, and maintenance providers
- Cargo and weight records when loading issues might involved
In a commercial vehicle case, applicable rules may require a carrier to retain certain inspection and maintenance records. Because some documentation is kept only for limited periods, early preservation efforts can be important. Missing records can also raise questions, particularly when a scheduled inspection or reported defect does not appear in the maintenance history.
How Technical Analysis Can Help Explain Tire Failure
The cause of a blowout may not be clear from photographs or the police report alone. Engineers, tire analysts, accident reconstruction professionals, or vehicle-maintenance professionals may examine the tire, wheel, suspension, roadway, vehicle data, and maintenance history.
Their analysis may help determine whether the tire failed before the driver lost control and whether underinflation, excessive wear, impact damage, improper installation, overloading, or a product defect contributed to the failure.
Can More Than One Party Be Responsible?
More than one party may share responsibility. For example, a vehicle owner might have delayed replacing a worn tire, while a repair shop that recently worked on the car might have missed visible damage to the tire, and the driver might have continued to use the vehicle after noticing recurring pressure loss.
Texas follows a proportionate responsibility system. When more than one party is at fault, a jury assigns each party a percentage of responsibility, and a claimant’s damages are reduced by their own percentage of fault. However, a claimant generally cannot recover any damages if they are found more than 50 percent responsible for the accident.
What Evidence Should Be Preserved After a Tire Blowout Crash?
Physical and electronic evidence can be lost quickly after a crash. Important evidence might include the failed tire and wheel, roadway tread fragments, the vehicle, photographs, video footage, onboard data, cargo information, and witness accounts. But the vehicle may be repaired, the failed tire discarded, roadway debris removed, cargo unloaded, and electronic data overwritten.
An attorney may notify the people and businesses involved that relevant evidence should be preserved. The materials that matter most will depend on how the crash occurred and who controlled the vehicle, tire, maintenance work, or cargo.
Call Bailey & Galyen After a Texas Tire Blowout Accident
A tire blowout involving a passenger vehicle, work vehicle, or commercial truck can leave injured people with serious medical needs, lost income, and questions about whether the tire failure could have been prevented.
Bailey & Galyen can review the circumstances, help identify records that might be relevant, and explain the available legal options. Since 1982, the firm has helped individuals and families facing difficult legal problems with large-firm resources and personal attention.
Call Bailey & Galyen to discuss your situation and possible next steps. Free consultations are available, and someone is available 24/7 to help you get started.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Is the driver always liable for a tire blowout accident?
No. Depending on the cause of the failure, responsibility may involve the driver, vehicle owner, employer, trucking company, repair provider, tire manufacturer or seller, cargo loader, or another party.
2. What records can show whether a tire was properly maintained?
Inspection reports, maintenance records, repair invoices, tire-pressure and tread-depth records, purchase documents, and driver communications can help show the tire’s condition before the accident.
3. Can a tire shop be liable for a blowout?
Possibly. A tire shop can share responsibility if improper installation, inflation, inspection, or repair contributed to the failure. The answer depends on the work performed and the available evidence.
4. Why is it important to preserve the failed tire?
The tire might contain physical signs of underinflation, tread separation, impact damage, improper repair, installation problems, or a manufacturing defect. If it is discarded or altered, determining why it failed can be more difficult.
5. What happens when several parties share responsibility?
Texas law allows responsibility to be divided among multiple parties. The percentage assigned to each party affects the amount a claimant can recover. The result depends on the evidence and the circumstances of the accident.
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