How To Survive A Blowout Without Wrecking

When a dry-rotted rear tire threw its tread while I was driving in my Eagle, I did exactly the wrong thing: I braked and hauled the car over to the shoulder in a hurry. I’d always been taught to get the car off the road asap if such a crisis occurred, and when I heard that shotgun-blast of the tire letting go, my emergency autopilot took over. I didn’t wreck, but it turns out the brake-and-swerve technique is the single fastest way to lose control of your vehicle during a tire blowout or tread separation. Hitting the brake when you have a flat or rapidly deflating tire unbalances the vehicle violently and can easily throw you into a spin. According to police trainers, what you’re actually supposed to do is momentarily squeeze the gas pedal slightly, keep a firm hold on the wheel, and steer straight in your lane. This stabilizes your ride (the drag from the damaged tire will keep you from speeding up) and allows you to then coast (not brake) down to below 30 mph, at which point you can then very lightly apply the brakes and gradually pull off the road. Check out full road-emergency-survival details at Edmunds—the demo video they’re running, in which trainers simulate front and rear blowouts using explosive charges, is pretty wild!—and get more insight into blowout dynamics in this article from The Car Connection.