Look out for the "gators" on the road, they're everywhere.A "Gator" is a slang term for a piece of tire tread that has ripped loose from a damaged truck tire.
Smaller gators are not a tremendous hazard if you run over them but the larger ones can cause some problems.
Perhaps a bigger hazard is a vehicle that swerves to miss one, that's what I saw today which luckily did not cause the accident that it could have caused.
On a busy major highway just ahead of me today, one car drove over a gator at sixty miles an hour and it flipped up in front of the car behind him. That driver freaked out, swerved to miss it and almost lost control in front of lots of traffic including me.
Any kind of debris on the road can be dangerous, I once watched (seemingly in slow motion) as a large bolt was flung up by a passing pick up truck changing lanes in front of me. The bolt was spinning in the air at my eye level as I hit it at 50 mph. My windshield shattered in circular area about a foot around with a perfect clear Hex shape in the center where the head hit. It sounded like a gun shot as the safety glass did it's job and kept it from penetrating through the glass.
I felt the instinctive urge to swerve but kept the wheel firm and ducked instead. If I had swerved enough to miss it, I would have clipped the car beside me or worse.
Just another reason to leave plenty of space between vehicles on the highway, you can see any hazards further ahead of you and take safe evasive actions to avoid hitting the debris.
More on road safety at http://www.ezee.ca
Forklift Safety at liftright.net
Or see my photos at donssite.com
1 comment:
Although we agree that tire debris on our highways is a hazard, it is important for readers to understand that much of the tire debris we see comes from tires that have never been retreaded.
The main cause of tire debris is improper tire maintenance, underinflation being the main culprit,followed by overinflation, mismatching of truck tires on dual wheel positions, improper tire repairs, tires driven with less than the legal limit of tread remaining, etc.
Retreaded tires have a safety record as good as the best new tires and are safely used by airlines (commercial and military), race cars, taxis, school and city buses, fire engines and other emergency vehicles and by millions of other vehicles worldwide.
To state that tire debris (road gators) comes from retreads is the same as stating that an accident caused by a drunk driver is the fault of the vehicle.
If you want more information about the true causes of rubber on the road contact us toll free at 888-473-8732 or by email at info@retread.org and we will send you a complete packet of information, including a CD & DVD. There is no cost for our materials.
Harvey Brodsky
Managing Director (I drive on retreads!)
Tire Retread & Repair Information Bureau/TRIB
900 Weldon Grove
Pacific Grove, CA 93950 USA
Toll free from anywhere in North America 888-473-8732
Telephone: 831-372-1917, Fax 831-372-9210
Cell 831-917-6449
E-mail: info@retread.org
www.retread.org - A GREAT SITE TO BOOKMARK AND REVISIT OFTEN!
The retread industry is one of the GREENEST industries in the world! Go retreads...GO GREEN!
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