Many people driving down the road may recognize the strips of rubber and tire that trucks often shed and leave along the side of the highway. While these are generally harmless, they can sometimes cause severe car accidents. In other cases, blowouts, failure to follow regulations, and other maintenance errors can leave trucks driving on dangerous tires that cause severe accidents. With trucks traveling thousands of miles per year, trucking companies have a duty to maintain safe tires on their vehicles.
Whether you were injured as a truck driver or the driver of another vehicle on the road, you might be entitled to compensation. For injuries caused by a blowout, improperly maintained tires, or any other tire-related cause, talk to an attorney about your case. The national truck accident attorneys at the Reiff Law Firm’s The Truck Accident Team may be able to take your case to court and seek compensation for your injuries. You may be entitled to damages for medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.
Causes of Truck Tire Failures
Since trucks travel for thousands of miles every year, they burn through tires quite quickly compared to most vehicles. Because of this, rather than purchasing new tires, many trucking companies will use tires that have been re-treaded or re-capped. This means that when the tire becomes worn down, trucking companies will simply have a new layer of rubber placed on top of the tire. Tire rubber often contains more than simple rubber and includes metal and other materials to make the tire more solid. Re-treaded or re-capped tires are more vulnerable to wearing down and failing.
When truck tires are improperly inflated, they often heat incorrectly and shed layers of tire. This is more common with re-capped or re-treaded tires. At high speeds, these sections of tire can fly off, causing damage and injury to other cars. In even more catastrophic situations, these tires could damage the adjacent tires, causing all of them to fail. This can cause the truck to swerve, lose control, and crash into other cars.
The US Department of Transportation and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration create rules that trucking companies must follow. In addition to the industry standards and truck manufacturer specifications, some of these rules dictate the requirements for truck tires. These rules often prevent re-capped tires from being used on the front wheels, along with other rules for tire safety.
Violation of any of these rules, in addition to common rules of the road and traffic regulations, can lead to liability for injuries the violations cause.
Getting Compensation for Truck Accident Injuries
For a truck driver injured in a truck accident caused by a problem with the tires, there are a few routes to compensation. The tire manufacturer can often be held liable for problems with their tires. Whether that problem came from a design defect that makes the entire line of tires dangerous or from improper manufacturing of a tire or a batch of tires, you might be entitled to compensation. Your trucking company employer might also be at fault if they failed to perform proper maintenance or upkeep on your truck. Sending you out on the road with an unsafe vehicle or unsafe tires is simply unacceptable.
If you were injured in another vehicle, there are similar routes for you to recover compensation. Since you were not the driver or passenger using the tires, you usually cannot sue the manufacturer of the tires. However, this depends on the specific rules of your state, so talk to an attorney to see whether you can sue the tire manufacturer for your injuries.
Even if you cannot sue the tire manufacturer, you may still have a case against the trucking company for the poor state of the tires. If the trucking company did the re-treading themselves, they might be liable to you for the injuries their repairs caused. Similarly, any other improper maintenance to the vehicle, such as failing to replace worn-out tires, could be their responsibility.
If the driver knew of the risks of their unsafe tires, but continued to drive, you might be entitled to compensation from the driver. Often this means you can add the trucking company employer to the lawsuit and sue them as well. Trucking companies are usually responsible for any of the failures of their drivers that occur on the job.
Truck Accident Attorneys
The lawyers at the Reiff Law Firm’s The Truck Accident Team fight to get the injured victims of truck accidents the compensation they need to recover from their injuries. If you or a loved one was in a car accident caused by a truck’s dangerous, worn-down, or blown-out tires, talk to an attorney today. Because your case might be limited by strict time limits, talk to an attorney today. Call (215) 709-6940 today for a free, confidential consultation on your case.
