Philadelphia Personal Injury Attorney Blog | Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis LLP

This summer the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued a reminder to drivers that during summer your tires are put under additional stress and this can cause car accidents, especially if your tires are old, worn out, or under-inflated.

The pressure on tires is increased during summer weather, and the additional stress of fully-loaded cars on road trips can lead to a deadly combination. "Protecting you and your family should be your top priority," said the NHTSA Administrator Nicole Nason, and urged everyone to have tires checked before going on the road.

In addition, the NHTSA offers tips for motorists wanting to check out their own tires:

· Inflation: all cars have the proper inflation level for their tires printed inside the driver's door or in the owner's manual.

· Tread: you can check the tread wear level of your tires either by looking for the wear indicators spaced intermittently in the tread grooves or by using the Lincoln's head penny test. In this test, you insert a penny upside down into the tread of the tire with Lincoln's head facing you. If you can see the top of Lincoln's head, you need new tires.

· Age: Tires degrade over time due to chemical changes in the rubber. These changes are not usually visible, but can lead to catastrophic tire failure during periods of stress, such as maneuvering at highway speeds. Check the age of your tire using the identification number printed on the tire. The number begins with the letters DOT, and the last four digits represent the week and year the tire was made. Although there is no knowing exactly when a tire will fail due to age, any tire older than five years can succumb to age-related failure. The NHTSA recommends that tires older than five years be professionally inspected every year. Many manufacturers list 10 years as the maximum service life for tires.

Be sure to check the date on your tires even if you think they're new. As an ongoing defective product lawsuit revealed, many tires are sold years after they are made, meaning that you could be driving around with dangerously old tires that you thought were brand-new.

The exact figures are unavailable, but the NHTSA estimates that as many as 400 wrongful deaths could be avoided every year through proper tire maintenance.

If you have been involved in an accident as a result of defective tires, contact an experienced car accident lawyer at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP today for a free initial consultation.