posted September 07, 2000 10:15 PM         

RE the recall
The media is clearly in a feeding frenzie as they were with the Audi 5000 "unintended acceleration" situation a few years back which was ultimately blamed on the driver pressing the wrong peddle but not before the media drove a number of Audi dealers out of business with the bad press.

Yes there have been accidents where the tire failed. I also remember reading that over 115 people died when the Concord crashed because a Goodyear tire failed but I haven't heard anything about a recall of Goodyear tires. I think the reason is that with the aircraft, there are competent people doing investigation into the root cause ( metal cut tire in the case of Goodyear ) while there is no real competent investigation of the 41000 hiway fatalities and noone ever wants to admit that the driver might have done it to himself.

Congressmen have said they don't want to hear that the public doesn't maintain their tires because it isn't politically correct to actually hold an individual responsible for his/her actions when there is a bad old deep pocket corporation that can be sued. The sad fact is that 25% to 47% (depending on the study) of the vehicles out there are running on under inflated, worn out or damaged tires with improper repair or no repair of punctures.

People like to claim that the tire just suddinly blew out for no reason and with no warning. I have never seen such a thing in 31 years as a tire engineer.
Impact breaks can go many miles before the sidewall lets go and by that time people have forgotten about the road trash or pot hole they hit. Tread separations will give indications of bad ride for many miles but the warning signs are ignored by the driver.

Tires leak air at a normal rate of 1 to 2% per month. At that rate it can only take 3 months for a tire to fall into the "Not recommended" catagory for the application. If you don't check inflation at least once a month you are responsible. If you don't pay attention to warning signs you are responsible.

Tire failures occur in the hundreds or thousands every day for many reasons and just as an aircraft such as the Concourd is considered to have a design fault if it cannot continue to function safely with a not abnormal tire failure. Does it not follow that if a vehicle's response to a tire failure is to roll over and have it's roof collapse and kill the driver it's design should be questioned?

Sorry for long reply to your simple question.