When a claim representative suspects tire failure as a factor in an automobile accident, he may call on an automotive expert to eyeball torn treads and probe gashes to uncover the story of how a tire’s deterioration could contribute to an accident.

Many times, the answer can be as direct as a failure caused by under inflation, but it sometimes takes a tire specialist to verify the cause because details that distinguish one tire failure from another can be subtle and difficult to discern to the untrained eye. Although automotive engineers with multi-disciplinary expertise can provide competent preliminary tire analysis, suspected tire-failure files typically require experts with more extensive tire knowledge and experience. Consulting automotive engineering firms will have ready access to these specialists.

At least initially, a tire investigation resembles a standard accident investigation. The claim representative will contact an automotive engineer and, based on the evidence, pose a theory of the accident’s cause. They will discuss its pros and cons, and then the engineer will begin an examination culminating in an analysis of the accident. A tire expert may step in immediately in cases of suspected tire failure, or he can wait until after the engineer examines the accident scene and the affected vehicles.

Ostensibly, the engineer and tire expert share a straightforward assignment with a specific goal, but an auto-accident inquiry rarely mirrors a crime scene investigation with its taped-off borders and scrupulous evidence collection. The challenge is a time lag; many investigations take place weeks, months, sometimes years after the fact. Even if a claim representative hears of an accident within days of its occurrence, the vehicles already will have been moved from the scene and the events will be history.

The Claim Representative’s Role

Evidence that diminishes or changes over time presents significant challenges to tire specialists because the story of a tire failure is written in pavement tread marks and in the blemishes that scar the tires. As time passes, heavy road use erases pavement marks, and torn-off tread scatters to mix with other roadside litter. In addition, vehicles and car parts transported from the accident site can suffer incidental damage in transit or storage. Conducting a tire analysis is difficult under these circumstances, but a claim representative can facilitate the investigation by taking an active role in protecting the evidence and collecting accident data for the tire specialist.

The police report is the first source of accident data, but it can be unreliable. Even though law enforcement officers are trained to investigate accidents, their need to manage an accident site and re-establish traffic flow usually trumps an immediate investigation. The resulting accident report may take several weeks or months to produce, and the level of detail is unpredictable. For specialists in pursuit of specific categories of clues, the police report may not be as helpful because law enforcement’s goal is determining culpable criminal negligence, not collecting evidence for future civil actions.

The claim representative can fill in the gaps with property damage reports accompanied by detailed photography and claimant interviews. Vernell Hance, an investigating automotive and research engineer, sees the interview as an optimal opportunity for probing the tire-failure question: “When dealing with suspected tire failure, it is important to ask the driver what they did and how they reacted. Focus especially on how they dealt with the vehicle’s instability caused by the tire failure.”

He stresses that the most important goals of an initial investigation are to ask the right questions and to make sure the information supplied to the tire specialist includes the following:

Tire rotation, repair, and replacement history, including date and mileage of last service.

Identity of the person responsible for monitoring tire condition and pressure.

Age and mileage of the tire (DOT number shows manufacture date).

Tread depth and unusual wear-pattern observations.

Weather and temperature conditions at the time of the accident.

Road conditions.

Overall vehicle condition.

Incidence of noise, vibration, or handling prior to failure.

Vehicle speed, if there was a loss of control.

Driver recollection of efforts to maintain control of the car, and

Tire pressures taken at the accident scene (if recorded).

Paving the Way for the Tire Expert

Investigating automotive engineers like Hance often examine the scene of the accident for the tire specialist who may work remotely on the tire analysis. The site visit, which he sees as an indispensable component to an investigation, is an opportunity to test the police report and compare the scene data to witness statements, noting the features that have not changed in the interim. Sometimes, physical evidence may have endured and can be collected at that time. From there, the engineer may check driver perspectives by digitally videotaping a narrated re-enactment of the accident from the points of view of each participant and identifying points of impact and rest, which can be downloaded to a computer for a frame-by-frame analysis. The engineer also will take extensive documentary photographs.

Next, the investigating engineer will go to the storage facility to examine the automobile and its tires, and he will remove the suspect tire(s) for shipping to the expert. The claim representative can ease the retrieval process by supplying accurate storage company contact information and the identifying features of the culprit tire(s) — confusion is possible if the damage does not distinguish the tire from its mates. Establishing and maintaining the tire’s chain of custody also is critical in the event of future litigation because spoliation of evidence can be a contentious area for tires. Again, a videotape record of the examination will allay any questions. Reference photographs juxtaposed with well-exposed, detailed shots reveal subtle details about the story of the accident. Context and identifying marks become extremely important because tire status quo may be affected by its removal to storage or during examination.

Take the Lead

In pursuit of the who, what, when, where and why of a suspected tire failure, William J. Woehrle, an automotive engineer with more than 25 years in product testing at Uniroyal Goodrich Tire Company, is most concerned with the “when,” or the timing of the damage to the tire that precipitated the accident. Pinpointing that elusive “when” requires a methodical visual and tactile survey of the damaged tire to document and categorize the normal and abnormal conditions — even the sense of smell can play a role. Evidentiary rules complicate destructive testing, but often a skilled expert can discern causes by simple observation.

Typically, Woehrle lets the tire speak to him before he delves into the accident’s documents — it is a discipline in his approach that forestalls any tendency to jump to erroneous conclusions, which is all too easy in tire investigations. For example, a gaping hole in the tire could certainly be the near cause of an accident, but perhaps a pothole dive weeks prior set the stage for an explosive, accident-resulting blowout. Often the diagnosis is not as clear as the symptoms indicate. As Woehrle formulates a hypothesis of the cause of the tire failure and extrapolates the sequence of events leading to the accident, he tests his assumptions by reviewing the police report, witness statements, and photographs.

Although tires may appear to be low-tech automotive equipment, they are not simple. They are precision products crucial to the comfortable and safe operation of automobiles. Even when a car’s body and mechanics are unscathed from an accident, tires will bear skidding scars from hastily applied brakes or scrapes and gouges from close encounters with road hazards. Hence, tires serve as effective witnesses to accidents. However, the accumulated incidental damage and indifferent maintenance that mark tires complicate the task of administering insurance claims. A tire expert can decipher a tire’s unspoken testimony.

Peter R. Thom is principal of Peter R. Thom & Associates, Inc. He can be reached at (800) 874-1664, www.prtassoc.com.

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