A rollover accident caused by a tire blowout left one person dead and four others badly injured. The single-vehicle crash occurred on I-26 in Orangeburg, South Carolina (SC), at around 3 am on August 18, 2014.
The 32-year-old driver of the car was thrown from the vehicle and lost his life. The individuals injured were identified by The State newspaper as children and teens ranging in age from 9 to 19. The survivors’ conditions after arriving at the hospital and prospects for recovery have not been reported.
Equipment failures and rollovers cause thousands of autom0bile accidents and truck crashes each year, and those wrecks take huge tolls in terms of deaths and disability. Efforts are under way to make all vehicles more stable and to strengthen roofs, spurred in part by federal pressure. Keeping a car or truck upright when a tire explodes or comes loose at highway speeds, however, can prove impossible.
Officials who investigate the deadly crash in Orangeburg must look closely at the tire that failed. History shows that defective tires have been at the root of many accidents that claimed lives and left people hospitalized. My Carolina personal injury and wrongful death attorney colleagues and I have closely tracked problems among tire manufacturers and subsequent product recalls. A poorly designed or constructed tire can lose its tread, explode or come off its rim. When any of those things happen while a vehicle is moving, tragedy can result.
I offer my deepest condolences to the family members of the deceased driver and wish the young people hurt in the South Carolina crash full returns to health.
EJL