Thursday, February 4, 2010
Flat Tire on Freeway
A flat tire on the freeway or any other busy highway can be very dangerous. There are mainly two kinds of flat tires, either the tire is very low on air or the tire is already flat and beginning to fall apart. In the first condition (tire very low on air) you have a chance to get off the freeway to a safe place where you can change the tire or wait for service. In the second case (flat and falling apart) it is best not to worry about saving the tire, your main objective is to get to the freeway off-ramp or to a safe place where you can change the tire or wait for service. The car will have more rolling resistance but it will continue moving on the flat tire, proceed very slowly and use caution. When pulling off the road to a safe place make sure your car is as far off the road and away from traffic as possible. Most of the time when a tire is run very low on air the inner layers of the tire will breakdown and render the tire useless anyway. If there isn't an off-ramp nearby or a safe place to stop, pull the car to the side of the road as far away from traffic as possible, when you can safely exit the car, walk as far away from traffic as possible to a more protected area. Don't get hung up on the idea that you need to save the tire. Far too many times people try to save a sixty five dollar tire and end up getting seriously injured or worse in the process.
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Another good idea is to turn on your emergency flashers as soon as you realize you have a problem so other cars can see that you are slowing and are moving to the right to get out of the way of faster traffic.
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