Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (JusticeNewsFlash.com – News Report) -– It was not alcohol, changing the radio, text messaging or even drugs that was responsible for the deaths of two young men on a road trip in Canada. It was something rather unexpected and of no real concern to Andy Moore. Nonetheless, while he was driving, his tire tread actually separated from the inside, causing his car to swerve, flip and land on its roof.
Tires actually have a distinct shelf life (usually about 6 years) that if ignored, could be fatal. The tires on 19-year-old Moore’s car were 9 years old, but thought to be perfectly safe. ABC’s 20/20 investigated tire factories and tire-selling stores and found many tires being distributed and sold that were up to 17 years old! Even though the tire tread looked new and had never been driven on, it still has grave risk to blow out due to dried rubber. The British Rubber Manufacturing Association strongly recommends that tires should not be used after more than 6 years of when they were made. Yet in the United States, tire manufacturers argue this as false, stating that there are no studies that show tires must not be used after six years. Shouldn’t Andy’s and many other cases be their evidence? Ford seems to think so as they are petitioning for the Federal government to place a 6-year age limit on tires sold to consumers. The secret code of numbers located on the top of the tires after the “DOT” displays the tires’ age. For example, if the last numbers read 4202, that means it is the 42nd week of the year 2002, making the tire 6 years old. If the numbers read 414, it is the 41st week of 1994, making the tire 14 years old. Many Americans do not check this, especially if they buy the tires as ‘new’, they are not necessarily safe.
The question here is how are these faulty tires able to be sold so easily to the public? If these tires are known to be potentially dangerous and marketed as normal, is that not fraud and false advertising on the part of the tire companies? It seems almost criminal and truly corporate failure and government neglect. If there are ‘sell by’ dates on consumer products such as milk, eggs and cheese, why should we not have visible, non-cryptic dates on tires, in which rest the safety of our lives?
JusticeNewsFlash.com News Reporter
