Blow out

Blow out may be defined as a sudden escape of a confined gas or liquid. As a driver, there are a few things you’re never trained for and one of them is a ‘blow out’. For me it was a much more cold experience than a robbery incident that had a pistol jammed right in my stomach. It can be a scary experience and often you see your life flash right past you as you hear the loud deafening sound of your tires as they rip to pieces and you struggle to bring your car to a stop. You remember every movie you’ve seen where someone lost a tyre and the car somersaulted.
The most common causes of blow out’s are usually aging tire’s. Experts say that the life span of a tyre is 4 years from its date of manufacture!!!!! In a country where we have challenging roads it’s safe to say that this value must be lower here. Our roads do make our cars take a beating and the tire’s which connects cars to the roads must suffer the worst of it. Incorrect tyre pressure, worn tires from alignment issues also aid blow outs.

Blow out on a 4x4 vehicle
I was lucky as the Blow out I experienced (twice) was below a 60Km/ hour and at both times the rear tires were lost. My brother, Jigga had his at a much more interesting speed of a 110Km/ hour. He’d been travelling at 170Km /hour but felt the need to reduce his speed. That must’ve been God speaking to him. He recalls that as he dropped to 110km/ hour, he saw his left rear tyre explode and rip to pieces in his rear view mirror. He said it was like time had been slowed down. All he remembered at that point was that our Dad said don’t stamp on the brakes…don’t stamp on the brakes if you ever have a blow out.

High speed blow out on a Ferrari
Normal braking requires an even distribution of brake force in the car, when you experience a blow out, the brake force is no longer uniform as the tyre that has lost pressure from the escaping air will not find traction. This is made worse when the driver stamps on the brakes. The car simply loses control and depending on the road speed and tyre in question, you may somersault!!!!
In the event of a blow out;
1st thing you should do is not to panic.
2nd do not step on the brakes. (Your natural instinct is to brake…DON’T)
3rd grab your steering wheel with both hands.
4th take your foot off the accelerator.
5th look for the clearest stretch of road ahead of you and point the car in that direction
6th let the car coast to a stop (let it come to a stop on its own)
7th put up the necessary caution signs and change to your spare (hope fully you’d have 1)
Its essential to bear in mind that as you service your engine at intervals, tyre maintenance is also a must and should not be left to road side vulcanizers. This must be done at a service station where the alignment and wheel balance is checked by professionals( i and Jigga once met a road side vulcanizer who swore he could simply by looking at your tires set it to the right pressure). If you suffer an engine failure from neglect, you most likely will survive it, a tyre failure from Neglect? Well I don’t know..........