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An oncoming truck blew a left tire right beside me at about 55 mph. All I saw was a white flash and heard a huge boom.
I swerved instantly about half the lane and yelled WTF was that to my wife who was on the back.
She had watched the tire blow and knew what it was, all I saw was the white cloud / flash. What the heck is that anyway?
About a year ago I was merging onto I-95 here in NJ. Tractor trailers up ahead in the right and middle lane in front of me so I start trying to make my way over to the passing lane to get by them. I'm in the middle lane at about 70mph waiting for a clear spot to get over again when I see a couple sheets of drywall go airborn off the trailer ahead of me. Not wanting to hit my brakes in fear of getting run over by traffic behind me I stayed at speed where I was at trying to judge where the drywall was going to land. One sheet ended up coming down just ahead of me and shattering into pieces which I somehow managed to avoid. I've been freaked out by trucks before but that experience was the scariest I've had so far. It taught me that even when you keep your distance bad **** can happen.
OP glad your okay. I'm sure you know it could've ended up much worse.
Scares the heck out of me to come up on a pickup or trailer with an extension ladder in it or on it. I've seen them blow out of vehicles several times.
So glad that you're OK. Once happened to me when I was about to pass a truck in my car, and that was terrifying enough; I have often wondered what would have happened if I'd been on the bike.
She had watched the tire blow and knew what it was, all I saw was the white cloud / flash. What the heck is that anyway?
Air in the tire has moisture in it, that turns to condensation from the heating and cooling cycles of the tire. The white cloud is the sudden release of all that built up air and water vapor.
When high pressure is instantly released a cloud of vapor will released. the shock wave of the released air will knock the dust out from under the bottom of the vehicle and the little pieces go wherever the air flowing around the truck takes it. Still I'd rather not be near one of those tires when it lets go.
Im always fearful of recap tire blowouts when passing trucks.
Wasn't there a recent crash in New Mexico involving a truck tire blowout that killed 10 people? I think it happened on I40 near Gallup, truck lost control due to a tire letting go, truck crossed the median and hit a Greyhound bus head-on.
Had a windshield snapped off the old shovel by a chunk of tire tread from one exploding about 6 car lengths ahead of me, saw the tire go, was ducking and trying to go for the shoulder when the gator hit. If the ex had been with me she's have taken it full in the face. Since I'm like everybody else I'm going round them by doing whatever I have to to put a truck in the rearview on highways.
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