When a motor vehicle is recalled for a hidden defect, vehicle owners can look up their vehicle by VIN on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) website. Auto manufacturers keep track of VIN ownership and strive to contact as many vehicle owners as possible about recalls.
But no similar system exists for tires, and for that reason, thousands of vehicles are still on U.S. roads with defective tires, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
In addition, thousands of vehicles may have old, worn, or cracked tires that don’t have a hidden manufacturing or design defect, but that do need to be replaced for safety reasons, according to the NTSB. In both cases, the difficulty of obtaining information about tire recalls, tire maintenance, or tire replacement schedules leads to motorists driving on unsafe tires, increasing their risk of a serious accident or injury as a result.
About 11,000 accidents every year are caused by bad tires, according to the NTSB. Over two hundred people lose their lives in tire-related crashes every year, and 6,000 more are injured. When a tire causes a crash, experienced Oklahoma City car accident lawyers know to check all possible causes – and they know how often an old, worn, or defective tire is to blame.
A recent NTSB meeting focused on ways to improve the flow of information to consumers, so that tires can be replaced more easily if they increase the risk of an accident. With better information on tire recalls, tire replacement, and the specific tires that come with used vehicles, vehicle owners can do more to protect themselves from this risk.
