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Tire Blowouts on Hot Austin Roads: Who’s Liable When a Tire Fails at Speed

A tire blowout accident is a crash that happens when a tire suddenly loses air or comes apart at speed, and in Central Texas heat these failures are far more common than most drivers realize. Our Travis County car accident lawyers handle blowout cases because the driver who loses control is often not the one at fault — the blame may sit with a tire manufacturer, a shop that mounted a defective or aged tire, or a company that ran its vehicles on tires it knew were worn. A blowout on I-35 or SH-71 at 70 miles per hour can throw a vehicle across lanes or into a rollover before the driver can react.

Texas summers punish tires. Sustained triple-digit pavement temperatures raise the internal heat of a tire, and heat is what causes a worn, underinflated, or defective tire to fail — the tread separates from the body of the tire and the whole thing lets go. When that happens on a crowded Austin highway, the injuries are often severe, and the cause usually traces back to a defect or a maintenance failure, not the driver.

Figuring out why the tire failed is what determines who pays for the crash it caused.

Why Tires Fail in Texas Heat

A tire that blows out almost always had a problem before the day it failed. The causes our attorneys investigate include:

• Tread separation. A manufacturing defect or age causes the tread to peel away from the tire’s body, especially under heat and load.
• Old or expired tires. Tires degrade with age even with good tread; a shop that sells or installs an old tire creates a hidden hazard.
• Underinflation and overloading. Low pressure builds heat fast, and a fleet or owner who ignores it invites failure.
• Defective repairs. A bad plug or patch, or a tire mounted incorrectly, can fail at highway speed.

Who Can Be Held Responsible

A blowout claim can reach several parties. If a manufacturing or design defect caused the tread to separate, the tire maker may be liable under Texas products liability law. If a shop sold or installed an aged or improperly repaired tire, that business may share fault. If a commercial fleet or vehicle owner ran on tires they knew were unsafe, they may be responsible too. Identifying every source protects your claim and often uncovers more available insurance.

You can check whether a tire has been recalled through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s recall database. A recalled tire that was never replaced is strong evidence that the failure was both known and preventable.

Preserve the Tire — It Is the Case

In a blowout claim, the failed tire is the single most important piece of evidence, and it is routinely thrown away at the scene or by a tow yard. Do not let it be discarded. A tire expert can examine a separated tread and tell whether the failure came from a manufacturing defect, age, a bad repair, or road damage — a finding that decides the entire case.

Our team works to recover and preserve the tire and the vehicle before they’re lost, and to bring in the right expert to read what the failure actually shows. That physical proof is what turns “the tire just blew” into a claim against the party responsible.

What a Blowout Claim Can Recover

Blowouts and the rollovers they cause produce serious injuries — spinal cord damage, traumatic brain injury, and worse. A recovery can include medical costs, future care, lost income, diminished earning capacity, property damage, and pain and suffering, plus wrongful death and survival claims where a blowout caused a death. Where a defective tire is involved, exemplary damages may apply if the maker knew of the danger.

Because the proof rides on a tire that gets tossed within hours, blowout claims punish delay more than almost any other crash case. Securing the tire early is what keeps the claim alive.

Talk to Our Austin Car Accident Lawyers