San Francisco Car Accident Attorney Recommends: Proper Placement of New Tires on the Rear

Maybe you forgot to rotate your tires or you hit something in the road and your tire alignment is out of spec. Now you need two new tires. I recommend that you always have the two new tires put onto the rear of the vehicle.

Whether you’re driving a front-wheel drive (FWD), rear-wheel drive (RWD) or all-wheel drive (AWD) vehicle, it is important for safety to know the basics of tire placements on your vehicle. Reduce car accidents by decreasing your chances of hydroplaning or spinning.

How do you do this? By making sure that you put your best tires in the rear. If your tires are not as good on the front of the vehicle, this may cause understeer, which is potentially bad, but often correctable. If your tires are not as good on the rear, this may cause oversteer or even spinning, which is much worse and more difficult to correct.

It is best to have all of your tires match well in terms of wear and inflation pressures. If you opt to only replace two tires, make sure the ones on the back don’t increase your potential to spin.

Recently, I represented the family of a woman who rented a car from one of the big rental car companies which will go unidentified here. It was winter and raining when they rented this lady the car. This company had left one bald tire on the rear of a rental car, and even though this car was FWD, the bad tire caused the vehicle to lose traction on wet pavement. The car spun out of control and this woman slid onto the wrong side of the road and was killed. This wrongful death was 100% preventable by simple basic maintenance of the rental car. The rental car company was made accountable. However, preventable death should never come to pass in this day and age in the USA.

Tire recommendations:

• Tires with deepest tread on rear of car
• 2/32 inches of tread depth minimum on tires
• Keep tires inflated to manufacturer’s recommendations

As a San Francisco Auto Accident Attorney, I have seen more than my fair share of injuries and wrongful death due to hydroplaning and other sliding on slippery roads. A high percentage of accident-related personal injuries result from auto accidents where cars are not maintained well. Car accidents are a major contributing factor to serious injuries including fractures, lacerations, head and brain injuries, spinal cord injury and paralysis, loss of limb, amputation, and joint injuries with surgery, along with wrongful death. Basic rudimentary maintenance is often all that stands between a safe ride and catastrophic loss.