Near-fatal accident, tire burst

Agree with the others but suspect the tires may have been old or underinflated or you hit something. There is no reason to lose control though and there are videos on what to do if the front blows or the rear blows to maintain control. Worth watching. Also think there is great value in the TPMS.

It does sound like you might run over some debris in the road that compromised the tire. Or the tire delaminated due to structural failure which could happen if the tire was very old or worn, or not properly inflated. I’m not sure why you would call this a “near-fatal accident”, as seemingly nobody was injured.

I hate to say this but I think what happened to you should happen to everybody. Until you’ve experienced it you don’t know how to react.

For whatever the reason, a tire can blow out quite suddenly. It’s not as common as it once was, but it still can and does happen. Driver’s ed courses (when they were still part of public education) used to teach you what to do when this happens: stay off the brakes until you have control of the car, grasp the steering wheel and try to control the swerving, gradually come to a stop safely off the road. I don’t know if anyone knows that anymore.

Glad you’re ok, and I assume you’ve had all your tires inspected or replaced as needed.

I recall 2 incidents related to tires blowing out on the freeway

Years ago, my aunt in Daly City . . . George, you might know this place . . . had a blowout on the freeway. She successfully pulled over to the right side, which was a very narrow break down lane.
She wasn’t very car savvy and didn’t have an auto club membership. I didn’t even have a driver’s license yet . . . I might have been 10 or 12 years old . . . but my dad had showed me how to change a tire. I told my aunt I would do it. The scary thing was it was the left rear tire, and we were pulled over on the right side. So, as I was changing the tire, cars were zipping by within inches of me. Later on, she told me she should have forked over some money for a tow truck, because she would never forgive herself if some guy drove over me while I was changing the tire.

Just recently, as I was driving home on the freeway, I noticed a bunch of brake lights just ahead of me. Everybody had to suddenly slow down to a crawl. A few seconds later, I saw a beat up old truck slowly making his way to the right side shoulder. He had a blow out. Based on the truck’s overall appearance, I estimate the tires were probably rotten and underinflated.

I would like to disagree with the person who said a front blowout is worse than a rear one. A rear blowout is more dangerous to control because it causes the rear to steer the car and you have no way to counter steer with the rear. I had a lot of experience with blowouts in my much younger and poorer days. The writers who said stay off the brake and establish steering control and let the tire slow you down were correct.
The Calspan institute many years ago established that 55-60 was the most dangerous speed to get a blowout. Much below that the forces are less and over that centrifugal force is greater and keeps the car stable while you gain control. 55-60 gives you the biggest drop and swerve.

Tires can have catastrophic failure at any time. You cannot prevent it from randomly happening. You should not worry about a blowout because it is rare. It probably won’t happen again even if you try to make it happen.

It can help if you know what caused something. I had my own crash site picked out twice. One time the car straightened out on its own. The other time I kept it on the road in deep snow by knowing when to lock all four brakes while sideways at 30 MPH. The decision was easy (obvious). I knew that the problem was caused by ME. That means that I have more to worry about than you do. Concentrate on your driving and never worry about rare problems.