ALT-1 How to Handle a Car when a Tire Bursts
It really doesn’t matter if it is a new or an old tire, a tire can burst at anytime at anywhere. You can never know if there is a nail lying in the middle of the road waiting into your tire. Most of the cars have tubeless tires nowadays so the tire just doesn’t go flat in few seconds. It takes a while for tubeless tires to go flat and this will give you the necessary time to pull over safely.
When we are driving, we don’t see the outside of our car. So if there is a driver trying to warn you, always pay attention to them. They might see your tire losing pressure and try to warn you so in this case, pull over whenever it is safe and try to check if something is wrong with your car and tires.
When the tire bursts, the first thing that you should do is to remain calm. Panicking will only make things worse. Do not slam on the brakes, this will make your car lose its stability and there is the risk of your vehicle rolling over. Do not touch the brakes even your car has ABS brake system, just let your feet of the gas pedal and let the car slow down. If you are going downhill, you might try to shift into smaller gears and slow down the car by using engine compression. Always steer slowly when your tire lost pressure. One of the most common mistakes when the tire bursts is trying to pull over the car as soon as possible. Never try to pull over as soon as possible when a tire bursts. Turn on your hazard lights, check your mirrors and then slowly pull over to a safe place. The other common mistake when a tire bursts is using the hand brake. Hand brake should only be used if you lost your brakes or you are a rally car driver competing in a rally. Using hand brake in other times will only increase the risk of your car rolling over.
It really doesn’t matter much front or back tires of the car burst. Your car will lose stability as soon as a tire bursts and pull to one side. If the car starts pulling to one side, do not try to pull to the other side with force. Do it gently and see if the car will have possibility to pull over safely. Sometimes it is even better use road barriers to stop instead of trying to pull your car fast to the safe side of the road. Your car is not more important than your life so it is better getting damaged than you being hospitalized. Speeding is very dangerous; if you are cruising below 60 mph, it is very easy to control your car but if you exceed 60mph, it won’t be that much easy to control your car.
Replacing your tires every four years independent of their mileage, checking your tires before driving, inflating your tires at least once a month and taking care of them will reduce the possibility of tire bursts but whenever you are driving your car, there is a risk. Hope you will never experience this unpleasant situation when you are driving.
