Expired Tires Blamed for Double Fatality

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BHopkins

Joined
Nov 3, 2013
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Location
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The local news recently reported about a severe highway accident just outside of a neighboring community, that resulted in two fatalities. Expired tires that were eight years old were blamed.

The factors in this unfortunate incident seem to be expired tires, speed, and not wearing seat belts. I can't help but wonder, if any one of these factors had been changed, would the accident have been averted? While the speed wasn't excessive for the weather and highway conditions, it appears it was for the condition of the tires.

https://www.hjnews.com/tremonton/expired...66db122cfc.html
 
8 year old tires are to blame? I'd like to hear the reasons for that determination-- dry rotting, or other age related defect?

I'd be more inclined to believe it was air pressure or just a freak tire failure. I've ridden on 8 year old tires before and never gave it a second thought. I knew the tires were in good physical condition though, and were garage kept.
 
Speed limit is 80mph on that highway. I drove that highway to Montana in 2014 and went the 80mph, often times I was the slowest car on the road.
 
Tread separation with no loss of air pressure shouldn't mean you go into the ditch, or am I wrong?
I was a guest at the Bridgestone test track in Texas. One of the demos was a class 8 tractor losing all air in a front tire, at 60 mph. I was the passenger in the tractor. My US folks volunteered the lone Canadian. Fun group. The driver hit the shark fin in the road, there was a massive BANG when the tire lost all the air at 110 psi. The driver brought the rig to a straight stop without much drama. Quite the ride.
 
I think age has to be considered relative to area. Out west or deep south like texas heat and 8 years could be a shot tire. Maybe not so much in cooler climates. I replace my TT tires at about the 7 year mark, even if they look good. But i'm not running anything on a vehicle older than 10. I never get that much tread life anyway.
 
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Originally Posted By: spasm3
I think age has to be considered relative to area. Out west or deep south like texas heat and 8 years could be a shot tire. Maybe not so much in cooler climates. I replace my TT tires at about the 7 year mark, even if they look good. But i'm not running anything on a vehicle older than 10. I never get that much tread life anyway.


Agreed. The victims were from Malad, Idaho. Humidity is very low, summer is very hot, and winter is very cold.

While I don't know for sure, I'm assuming that the investigators laid blame of tire age only after finding severe tire rot.
 
Originally Posted By: BHopkins

The factors in this unfortunate incident seem to be expired tires, speed, and not wearing seat belts. I can't help but wonder, if any one of these factors had been changed, would the accident have been averted? While the speed wasn't excessive for the weather and highway conditions, it appears it was for the condition of the tires.

https://www.hjnews.com/tremonton/expired...66db122cfc.html


Can't access that apparently 'cos I'm in Yurrup (some mumbojumbo about local data protection laws)

Anyway "not wearing seat belts", which seems to be ignored above, would be my top pick for the Pearlies.

I don't do that, though I do the aged tyres thing.
 
Not wearing seat belts would be my guess as to why they died. The tires expiring is something I’ve not heard of before.
 
Lack of seat belts is definitely what did them in. However, dry rotted tires are definitely a bad thing. My mother-in-law had a set that was about 8 years old. The handling was horrible, “lumpy” is the best I can describe it. The outer side of the tires looked fine, but the inner side had deep cracks. I got her new ones ASAP. She knows nothing about cars, but could even tell a huge difference.
 
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Originally Posted By: 92saturnsl2
8 year old tires are to blame? I've ridden on 8 year old tires before and never gave it a second thought.


8 year old tires in the east aren't the same as 8 year old tires in the west/southwest. Pretty sure it takes a lot less neglect or abuse to make tires dangerous here.
 
Originally Posted By: Crispysea
Lack of seat belts is definitely what did them in. However, dry rotted tires are definitely a bad thing. My mother-in-law had a set that was about 8 years old. The handling was horrible, “lumpy” is the best I can describe it. The outer side of the tires looked fine, but the inner side had deep cracks. I got her new ones ASAP. She knows nothing about cars, but could even tell a huge difference.


Without doing a root cause analysis, it is easy to see how any one of these factors could change the outcome. Driving on rotted tires, but limited speed to say, 50 MPH may have prevented the tire from coming apart. Thus, not bucking the seat belts wouldn't have mattered. Wearing seat belts wouldn't have prevented the rotted tire from failing at highway speeds, but it seems highly probable that everyone would have survived. Having tires in good condition would have allowed traveling at highway speeds without a failure due to tire condition, and then wearing or not wearing seat belts would have not been a factor.

Some things you can't predict. That's why we should always wear seat belts. But in this case, it is easy to predict that driving on bad tires is unsafe. So many car maintenance items are smart to do, but don't necessarily have an impact on our safety. Maintaining tires is not one of them.
 
I have some old tires on the bike, and they are solid in performance at high speed (same can't be said for the bike lol). I have run tires to the end of their life and can honestly say you will never run them to 80 mph, not even 50. They bulge through the dry rot bad . Even at that they drove me to and fro until I found tires to replace them. There is no way those things were properly inflated and magically decided to let go.
Sounds like that incident where a guy killed his whole family in a ES350 because he didn't have the sense to shift into neutral. Just Darwinism at work.
 
Expired tires? Never heard that one before. Seems to imply something that doesn't exist. Probably made up by the reporter. Certainly the police wouldn't say anything like that! I notice they did not identify the brand.
 
Not surprised. Tires can dry out on the inside as well. I keep telling people. Get rid of your tires after 6 years from date manufactured and DO NOT use any tire dressing.


Another issue that isn't always spoken about is over recalled tires. Secondhand shops will buy old/recalled tires and resell them to people looking for a deal.
 
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Im not sure I would drive 80mph in a F250 with new tires. The handling on them is terrible. Now I know some will tell me how they drive 100mph in a f250 and it handles like a sports car, im just stating my opinion.

We have some at work and when empty, a bump in the road makes the rear end hop, and generally they just don't feel right above 70mph. Some of my experience is based on a brand new truck so component wear was not a factor.

I am curious what the front suspension component condition was. If you ever have experienced a "death wobble" in a ford super duty you know what I am getting at. I experienced such at 65mph in a company truck with 45k miles on it. Bad stuff. It ended up needing just about everything replaced.

http://www.fourwheeler.com/how-to/t...n/131-0912-ford-super-duty-death-wobble-cure/
 
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All you can blame the tires for is the initial crash. Not wearing a seatbelt is what cost them the ultimate price instead of just an old F series and some bruises. I wouldnt be surprised if the tires were cheap, neglected, left in the sun, who knows what psi was ran, ect. Still, everybody should buy quality tires or dont drive. 8 years is really pushing it unless the tires are kept indoors and used regularly. Often the people who cheap out on this sort of thing have plenty of money to be able to replace tires but just dont want to spend it.
 
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