Woman Injured In Tire Blowout Accident
A recent news report described an accident in which a woman was severely injured after the tire on her sedan blew out causing a collision with a pickup truck. In most cases, tire blowout accidents occur when the driver fails to take care of routine maintenance on their vehicle. However, there is a lot of room to impute liability on the company that manufactured the tire, mechanics who install new tires, and local governments who fail to remedy dangerous obstructions and debris that lead to tire blowout accidents.
Since we don’t know what happened here, we can lay out the facts and sift through the possibilities.
Is the driver responsible?
All drivers are required to ensure that their vehicles are roadworthy. That means that if you have a leaking tire, an old tire, or an under- or over-inflated tire, the liability falls on you. If you recently had your vehicle serviced then some (most) of the liability would fall on the company that serviced your vehicle.
When it comes to suing tire companies, the defense is almost always the same. They blame the driver indiscriminately for blowout accidents on the basis of a failure to maintain the vehicle, under or over inflation of the tire, or alternatively, the local government or phantom road debris.
Is the tire company responsible?
Companies occasionally manufacture tires that are either defective, defective toward a certain use, or possessed of a manufacturing defect that renders them less than suitable for the road. In cases where you can establish a manufacturing defect, the tire company can be held responsible for the accident caused when the tire blew out.
Tire service companies
If your tire blows out because it wasn’t installed properly, then the liability falls on the company that installed the tire. This does happen. An improperly installed tire will behave unpredictably.
How this lawsuit will play out
The plaintiff will need to present her case to an attorney first who will look at the details of the tire blowout. If the tire was under- or over-inflated, the case can still be won, but it will reduce the plaintiff’s jury award if she is also blamed for the suit. If she is primarily responsible for the suit, then she may not be able to find an attorney willing to take the case. Instead, the pickup truck driver with whom she collided would have a case against her. The named parties in the lawsuit will simply assume that she is responsible until her attorney presents them with evidence otherwise.
Ultimately, we don’t have enough information to determine who is responsible. However, modern vehicles have tire gauge warnings when the tire isn’t inflated enough. So, if she had cause to know the tire was underinflated, the liability may fall on the victim in this case.
Talk to a Miami Personal Injury Lawyer Today
Halpern, Santos & Pinkert represent the interests of Florida residents injured in tire blowout accidents. Call our Florida personal injury lawyers today to schedule a free consultation and discuss your suit in more detail.
