In October 2019, I purchased my second set of Cooper CS5 Grand Touring tires at Discount Tire. They're size 255/55 R17. I really like these tires. They're grippy and quiet. This particular tire is not included in any Cooper recalls. They have 22K miles on them with lots of tread left. I check the air pressure monthly and get them rotated on schedule.
On my last set of Coopers, (same model) one of the tires started to develop tread separation near the end of its life. The manager at DT didn't know if it was a defect or just to be expected due to its age, but he gave me a new tire and sent the old one back to Cooper.
This week, my rear tire exploded when I was on the freeway doing 70mph. The road was clear at the time- I didn't drive over anything. The tire just went POP like a gun shot and blew apart. I lost control of my car; did fishtails and donuts all over the freeway in heavy traffic before coming to a stop on the shoulder. Other drivers had to swerve to avoid me, and then swerve to avoid each other. It should have been a 10-car pileup but miraculously there were no collisions. No one was hurt or killed, for which I'm intensely grateful.
I'm taking the car in to DT today for a replacement tire, but I'm wondering if these tires are safe? It's possible that I ran over something, but if not, then the issue was the tire itself. Even though these tires aren't in any recall, what if they're defective and just haven't been acknowledged as such yet? If it was you, would you keep driving on them or switch to another brand?