WASHINGTON (Jan. 28, 2009)—Tires only rarely cause fatalities in non-crash vehicle accidents and are relatively uncommon factors in non-crash injuries, according to a report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Exploding tires caused only seven of 1,159 documented non-crash fatalities in 2003 and 2004, according to data collected by NHTSA for those years from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Vital Statistics System. The information is included in the just-released “Not-in-Traffic Surveillance 2007”.
Being struck by a falling vehicle accounted for 168 documented vehicle-related deaths in those two years, the report said, followed by carbon monoxide poisoning (147 deaths), falling from a vehicle (88 deaths) and vehicle fires (57 deaths).
The NHTSA report also documents 743,000 non-crash injuries recorded by the Consumer Product Safety Commission's National Electronic Injury Surveillance System All Injury Program between 2003 and 2006. Hoist/jack incidents during tire changing accounted for approximately 2,000 of these injuries, and tire explosions for about 1,000, according to the report.