A tire is not supposed to come apart at 70 miles per hour. When the tread peels off or a tire blows on the highway, the driver can lose control in a second — and a routine drive turns into a rollover. If a bad tire hurt you or someone you love, we find out why it failed and who built it.
As a Fort Lauderdale tire defect lawyer, Robert DiStefano sees the same story again and again: a family is driving home, the tire suddenly fails, the vehicle swerves, and it rolls. Police call it a single-car crash and write "tire failure" on the report. But a tire that was built right and cared for does not shed its tread on a normal drive. Often the real cause is a defect baked into the tire long before you ever bought it.
This is not an ordinary car-accident claim. It is a product case. Instead of arguing about who ran the red light, we put the failed tire under the microscope — sometimes literally — and ask whether it was designed badly, built badly, or sold without a warning it needed. When the answer is yes, the company that made the tire can be held responsible for what it did to you.
Two failures cause most of the serious injuries we see. Tread separation is when the top layer of the tire — the part that touches the road — peels away from the body of the tire while you are driving. A blowout is a sudden loss of air, often when the tire's inner structure gives out. At highway speed, either one can throw a tall vehicle like an SUV or pickup into a roll. The injuries that follow are rarely small.
A tire case runs on product-liability law, not ordinary negligence. You usually do not have to prove the maker was careless — only that the tire was defective and that the defect hurt you. Here is the law that matters.
Florida product liability — strict liability
Florida lets you recover for a defective product under three theories: a design defect (the tire was unsafe as drawn up), a manufacturing defect (a good design built wrong on the line), or a failure to warn (the maker knew of a danger and did not tell you). You prove the defect made the tire unreasonably dangerous — not that anyone meant to cut a corner.
Fla. Stat. § 95.11(4)(a) amended 2023
Florida's 2023 tort reform (House Bill 837, effective March 24, 2023) cut the deadline for most injury lawsuits from four years to two years from the date of the crash. Wait too long and your claim is gone — no matter how clear the defect is. Different rules and shorter notice periods can apply, so the clock is the first thing we check.
Florida statute of repose — products
Separate from the filing deadline, Florida sets a statute of repose for products with a known useful life. After a set number of years from delivery, a product claim can be barred even if the harm is recent. Tires age, and dates matter — we pull the manufacture date stamped on the sidewall early so a deadline never quietly closes your case.
Fla. Stat. § 768.81 amended 2023
Under the 2023 changes, an injured person who is found more than 50% at fault for an accident generally cannot recover at all. Below that line, your award is reduced by your share of fault. Tire makers love to blame the driver — under-inflation, worn tread, speed. Building the engineering record up front is how we keep the blame where it belongs.
This page provides general information about Florida law and is not legal advice. Statutes and case law change; your specific case requires a consultation.
Tread separations and blowouts do their worst damage at speed, which is why so many of these crashes happen on Broward's fast roads. A tire that might hold together around town comes apart when it is hot, loaded, and running 70 for miles. Lose a tire in heavy traffic and there is rarely room to recover.
In a tire case, the failed tire is the single most important piece of evidence. It is the proof. If it is lost, scrapped, or returned to the insurer, much of the case can disappear with it.
The crash is the injury. The tire is the proof. Save the tire.
A qualified engineer can take a failed tire and read it like a record. They look for old separations inside the belts, signs the rubber lost its bond, gaps from a bad build, and clues in the manufacture date and wear pattern. That examination is how a strict-liability case is built — and it is impossible if the tire is gone.
After a serious crash the tire often ends up at a tow lot, a body shop, or back with an insurance company that has no reason to keep it. The sooner you call us, the sooner we can act to hold it as evidence — along with the other tires, the wheel, and the vehicle. If you still have the tire, keep it dry, do not let anyone cut or clean it, and tell us where it is.
Product cases are not a side project here. Robert DiStefano has practiced Florida personal-injury law for more than 40 years, and he handles these matters personally — you work with him, not a rotating file clerk. He knows how tire makers defend these claims, and he knows the engineers who can prove a defect.
Like all of our injury work, a tire-defect case is handled on contingency. There is no fee unless we recover for you — no hourly bills, no retainer, nothing out of your pocket to get started. Your first case review is free, confidential, and same-day, and the engineering and filing costs are ours to carry while the case is built.
One free, confidential conversation. We check the deadline and tell you where the tire likely is right now.
We move to preserve the failed tire and vehicle, gather the crash record, and bring in a tire-failure engineer.
With the engineering in hand, we press the manufacturer and any other responsible company for full value.
This page is one of our specialty accident practice areas. We also handle aviation crash claims and boating and maritime injury cases. To see what these claims have recovered for other clients, see related case results → Want to know who is on your side? Read Robert DiStefano's background, or reach our Fort Lauderdale office.
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Before the tire gets scrapped and the deadline runs, talk to a lawyer who has handled Florida injury cases for 40 years. The call is free, and there is no fee unless we recover for you.
(954) 572-8000