[coolboy007]

raj,

Am extremely sorry for the loss of lives of your friends. For this accident we cant properly blame anyone
May the departed souls RIP.

What phamilyman said makes sense, the IOC pump where i got air filled for 3 months, came to know later using my digital tyre pressure gauge that he fills 4-5PSI extra over what i tell him and he has a digital meter.

A nail stuck in tyre can also cause this, overall its responsibility of the owner to check the tyres properly which most of us always skip.
I make it a point not to fill air from any pump when am on a highway trip for the sole purpose that their pumps are never calibrated.

[sudharma]

Originally Posted by coolboy007

raj,

.

Sad to hear about the accident and the lose of somany lifes. May the souls rest in peace.

In our country tyre busting is not very common. In the middle east countries this is very common. Most of the cars there comes with tubeless tyres. even tyres inflated to the correct pressure explodes while the vehicle is on the move. Very high ambient temperature and high speed of the vehicle(160+ Kph ) increases the tyre temperature which in turn increases the tyre pressure. Unlike the Cross Ply tyres, the Radial Tyres have thin walls. The excessive pressure bulid up leads to tyre failure. The common practice is to reduce the tyre pressue by a couple of Psi before undertaking any long journey in the summer.

Under inlfation or air leaking slowly may not be much of a problem as one will get advance warning of vehicle draging to one side or other.

[ElantraGT]

Raj,

Its sad to hear about the loss of somany life in a matter of few minutes. May the departed souls RIP. I second the opinion given by the techies here. Yes as you have mentioned if there is a manufacturing defect it could induce a tyre burst. I am not sure how we can prove it to be manufacture defect in the court. There is a general misconception that Tubeless tyres are not prone to tyre burst. When I went to change the tyres of my ZEN the tyrewala told me the same story that these tyres will not burst. I gave him right royally for giving wrong info.

@coolboy - I have the same problem with the IBP and HP petrol bunks. They always have 3-4 PSI more than what you requested. The only place to get a better air pressure is at SHELL outlets. This is purely from my experience with the different outlets that I frequent in and around chennai.

[tsk1979]

Tire burst can be caused by many factors.
The most common is debris on road. Sometimes, due to light etc., or general shape of the debris(for example a grey iron rod) its not visible, and you have a tire burst.

Other than debris, the most common cause is under inflation.
Now imaging a tire roating.
The part which is touching the ground is flattened slightly.
When the tire rotates, the part comes back to its "round shape",
Now this does not happen in zero time. If tire is underinflated, rubber contact patch which is flattened does not come back to its shape in one roation.
So when the region comes back to ground again after rotation its slightly flat.
This leads to formation of something called a standing wave.
Now if you recall, standing waves store energy. Over many rotations, the energy keeps rising, and its all heat.
Standing waves once formed will start storing energy quickly, and very soon, it reaches the critical point, and boom.

Thats why tires should always be inflated to atleast the manufacturer recommendation.
For high speed driving always inflate tires 2-3PSI above manufacturer rating.

[Samurai]

I have had tyre burst while on highway, at least twice. Both in tubeless tyres, first in the front, second in the rear.

1) First time it happened in 1997 in my Mercury Sable (1991), which apparently had wheel alignment issues. I hadn't noticed the uneven wear-out on the inside ege. While driving on Garden State parkway (NJ), the passenger side suddenly bottomed out, I managed to stay within the lane. Actually I was closing on a toll booth, so there were almost 6 lanes on each side. As I stopped in the middle lane, the cars from behind passed me from both sides. It was really a nightmare to get the car to the shoulder avoiding the cars. The inside edge of the front right tyre was completely worn out until the steel belts.

2) Second time it happened in 2002, in my Acura 3.2TL (2001). I suddenly heard a loud hiss and then a continous low whirring sound after that. Then I didn't bother to check. Later during lunch while going home I kept hearing the low whirring sound, but I didn't feel any difference in the steering. After lunch when I was about drive back, I remembered the whirring sound and took a casual walk around the car. That is when I noticed that the tyre diagonally opposite to the driver was fully flat. This was due to a L shaped metal piece, unlike a nail it won't plug the hole.

[tanwaramit]

Raj, sorry to hear the loss of lives of your known ones. Its really more shocking that tubeless tyres could be a hazard to life too.

I was planning to put tubeless on my santro in this week so that I can drive without worry much about roads, but it seems they are more dangerous than tube tyres.

Can anyone throw light, if it is advisable to go for tubeless instead of tube type tyres to minimize incidents like this. (could be useful for everyone)

[Hoopoe]

It is truly sad and shocking incident. The irony is that such things happen when everyone's doing just the right things.

If anyone remembers, the last Concorde crash on a Parisian hotel immediately after takeoff was also due to a sharp object on the runway that cut into its tyre and then hit the fuel-filled wings.

I think whether it is over-inflated tyres or sharp objects, one neds to be extremely careful with the vehicle's tyres and their condition. Besides that one should be watching out on the road very carefully while driving. Today's cars are capable of driving very fast and we, most of the times, overlook such situations and the fragility of certain parts in situations like this.

May the departed souls rest in peace.

[DieselFan]

I had punctures leading to sudden loss of tyre air pressure at least a couple of times on my swift tubeless JK tyres. Even though the tyres were shody the car held its straight line drive with a bit of feedback to the steering as it steered towards the failed tyre. Even though I was doing 50-60 kmph on the car when this sudden failure of tyre happened there was not a bit of an issue with the car. Also I could notice this problem only after 0.5 km of driving post the tyre failure. this clearly shows that some cars handle tyre bursts or sudden loss of pressure much better than the others. Swift D I give 9/10 on handling such situations.

[Nikhilb2008]

Originally Posted by DieselFan

I had punctures leading to sudden loss of tyre air pressure at least a couple of times on my swift tubeless JK tyres. Even though the tyres were shody the car held its straight line drive with a bit of feedback to the steering as it steered towards the failed tyre. Even though I was doing 50-60 kmph on the car when this sudden failure of tyre happened there was not a bit of an issue with the car. Also I could notice this problem only after 0.5 km of driving post the tyre failure. this clearly shows that some cars handle tyre bursts or sudden loss of pressure much better than the others. Swift D I give 9/10 on handling such situations.

It does not depend too much on the car. Of course, you cannot compare a small, light, low-slung hatch to a big, heavy tall MUV. But if your Swift had a tyre burst, then you would have definitely had a tough time controlling it. You luckily only experienced a puncture. A pretty rapid one at that, but a puncture nevertheless.