Defective Tires and Tread-Separation Crashes

At 70 mph on I-696, a tire's tread can peel away in a fraction of a second — and a top-heavy SUV can roll before the driver's hands can react. When the tire itself failed, this isn't just a car accident. It's a product-liability case.

We're Big League Injury Lawyers, and tread-separation cases are among the most technical — and most serious — crashes we handle. The injuries are catastrophic, the defendant is usually a large manufacturer, and the single most important piece of evidence is the tire itself. What you do in the first days after the crash can make or break the claim.

What Actually Happens in a Tread Separation

A modern tire is a layered structure: steel belts bonded to rubber under enormous heat and pressure. When a manufacturing or design defect weakens that bond, the tread can separate from the tire body while you're driving — sometimes on a tire that looks perfectly fine from the outside. The result is a sudden loss of control, and in taller vehicles like SUVs, pickups, and vans, that often means a rollover.

This is different from a simple flat or a nail puncture. A defective tire fails from the inside out, and it frequently happens at highway speed when the forces are greatest.

Why These Crashes Are So Devastating

• Rollovers produce a disproportionate share of serious and fatal injuries.
• Occupants can be ejected, especially if a door opens or a roof crushes.
• Common injuries include traumatic brain injury, spinal cord damage and paralysis, and multiple fractures.
• The crash often involves multiple vehicles when the out-of-control car crosses lanes.

This Is a Product-Liability Case

When a tire fails because it was defective, Michigan product-liability law lets the injured person sue those in the chain of distribution — typically the tire manufacturer, and sometimes a retailer or installer. A defective-tire claim generally rests on one or more theories:

1. Manufacturing defect — the tire departed from its intended design (contamination, poor adhesion, trapped moisture, an improperly cured belt).
2. Design defect — the tire's design was unreasonably dangerous, or lacked features like a nylon cap ply that would have prevented separation.
3. Failure to warn — the maker knew of a risk (for example, aging or heat) and didn't adequately warn consumers.

Michigan's product-liability statute has its own rules and defenses, and manufacturers fight these cases hard with well-funded experts. That's exactly why the physical evidence matters more here than in almost any other kind of crash.

The Tire Is the Case — Do Not Lose It

We cannot overstate this: preserve the tire. After a serious crash, the vehicle often goes to a tow yard or salvage lot where damaged tires get discarded or the vehicle gets sold and crushed. Once the tire is gone, proving the defect becomes vastly harder.

• Keep all of the tires, not just the one that failed — comparison matters.
• Keep the wheel and any tread pieces recovered from the roadway.
• Preserve the vehicle itself if possible; the crush pattern and restraint data tell the story.
• Photograph the tire's DOT code and date stamp on the sidewall — this identifies the plant and week of manufacture and can tie your tire to a recall or a pattern of failures.

Check for Recalls and Age

Tires are recalled more often than most drivers realize, and even a never-recalled tire can be dangerous if it's simply too old — rubber degrades with age whether or not the tire has been used. The DOT date code tells you when it was built. Part of investigating a tread-separation case is checking that code against recall databases and the manufacturer's own failure history.

Comparative Fault and Michigan No-Fault

Expect the manufacturer to argue the crash was the driver's fault — overloading, under-inflation, road hazard, or poor maintenance. Michigan uses modified comparative negligence, so fault assigned to the driver reduces recovery, and being more than 50% at fault bars non-economic damages. A thorough investigation, often with a tire-failure expert, is how we counter those defenses.

Remember, too, that Michigan's no-fault system still applies to the crash: your own auto policy's PIP benefits should cover medical expenses and wage loss regardless of who or what caused the wreck. The product-liability claim against the tire maker runs on top of that, targeting the pain, suffering, and full damages no-fault doesn't provide.

What to Do After a Tire-Failure Crash

1. Get medical care immediately — rollover injuries are often internal and serious.
2. Do not let the vehicle or tires be scrapped. Tell the tow yard in writing to preserve everything.
3. Photograph the tire, the DOT code, the debris path, and the scene.
4. Get the police report and the responding officer's observations.
5. Save receipts and records showing when and where the tires were bought and serviced.
6. Open your no-fault/PIP claim to start medical and wage benefits.
7. Call a lawyer right away — before the evidence disappears and before you talk to the tire company's insurer.

Bottom Line

A tread separation is not bad luck — it's often a defective product failing exactly the way it shouldn't. Michigan product-liability law gives victims a path to hold tire makers accountable, but these cases live and die on evidence that vanishes fast. If a tire failure caused a serious crash, save the tire, save the vehicle, and call us before anyone hauls the proof away.

« Back to all blog posts