Your tires are some of the most important pieces of your car, since they are the only things that are in contact with the road. If you have a set of defective tires on your vehicle, you can be putting yourself, your passengers, and every other traveler on the road at risk. In many cases, tire problems come from lack of maintenance like improper inflation or driving over the suggested mileage for the set of tires, but in other cases, a product defect can cause a major accident to no fault of the driver at all.
If you have been in an accident and you believe that a defect in your tires either caused or contributed to the crash, contact us immediately to discuss your options. You may be able to seek compensation for your accident and injuries directly from the tire manufacturer, the installers, or another party along the distribution chain for failing to properly protect you and your passengers from harm. Schedule a consultation and a free case evaluation now, so that you can discuss your situation with an experienced Atlanta car accident attorney. We will explain to you what your rights look like in this situation, and how we would proceed with your case as your legal representatives.
Read more about defective tires below, or schedule your consultation through the link on our home page.
What Are Some Examples Of Defective Tires?
Tire defects can cause unexpected changes to the way that you are driving, meaning that the end result is entirely dependent on the specifics of your situation. However, here are some examples of accidents that can be either caused or worsened by defective tires:
Skidding
Skidding happens when your tires are not able to properly grip the surface that they are traveling over. When you hit the brakes too hard when you are going to quickly, you can expect that you will skid. However, skidding might occur if your tire treads are not safe due to a defect, even at low speeds.
Tire Blowouts
A tire blowout is extremely dangerous for a 4-wheeled vehicle, because it means that the driver is operating on 3 wheels and their steering ability is seriously impacted. At high speeds, a blowout can cause the car to spin sideways, or even flip, or swerve into other cars.
Hydroplaning
Hydroplaning is a common issue when you are driving in the rain, but tire treads are designed to reduce the likelihood of this problem in many circumstances. If your tires are mounted improperly, or the treads are defective, you may find yourself losing control on a puddle that should not have caused you to hydroplane.
Loss of control in normal driving conditions
In addition to the many different adverse driving conditions that can exacerbate a defective tire, there are many or more times where you are at risk while simply driving in normal conditions. Your tires may cause your steering to become extremely unbalanced, which will pull you into a different lane or even put your car into a spin.
Determining Legal Responsibility for Defective Tires
There are many different methods that we may use in order to determine who was legally responsible for the defects of your tires. This could include things like researching existing recalls, determining the cause of your accident through the use of police reports and eyewitness accounts, or many other methods we have to determine these things and prove them to the court.
Your accident is specific to you, and we will take an individual approach to make sure that we gather all of the important information required to build our case. During our initial consultation, you will be able to explain your accident, and understand your rights in the context of Atlanta car accident lawsuits. We may ultimately determine that it is appropriate to seek payments from the retailer, installer, manufacturer, distributor, or a combination of those involved in the supply chain depending on what we determine the defect to be.