So me and all the guys from my small group are driving out to Angels stadium the other night. Traffic is clear, and I’m doing 75-80 in the carpool lane when our Expedition starts jumping up and down wildly - kind of like when the freeway is bumpy but this was really bad. I start to slow down and BAM, thud, thud, thud. My right rear tire blows. Now I’m just trying to keep the car under control as its starting to weave back and forth. I have never experienced a blowout before, but luckily I was able to stay calm.
I don’t normally drive this car - Amy usually does. My first thought was thank God I was driving when this happened. I honestly felt like the car could have lost control and spun out - however large SUVs don’t spin out, they roll over - and it is often deadly.
I’m guessing all the cars behind us saw the whole thing happen, because they were all slowed down enough to let me get over to the slow lane and pull off on the next exit. Lucky for us there was a tire place right off the freeway, so I pulled right in.
It wasn’t until we got out of the car that we realized what had actually happened… Apparently the tread had completely separated from the tire. The sidewall was still intact and it still held air. This is exactly what happened to a lot of people that had bad Firestone tires on their Explorers a few years back. And I didn’t realize until I started researching tread separations, just how many SUVs do rollover from this, and how many people have died. I did not even realize at the time just how close we really came to meeting God.
Here a some pictures of the aftermath - as you can see a large chunk of rubber can do a lot of damage at high speed. The rear bumper is dented and scuffed up. The mud flap is wrecked, the tail pipe is loose. and the side of the car is scratched up. The running board is bent down and the door is scratched up.
