Catastrophic tire failure tire that failed was a Bridgestone dueller P225/70 R16 that was an original equipment spare on a 2004 Hyundai Santa Fe. The SUV was purchased new in March 2005, it has approximately 25,000 miles on the odometer. The spare was placed on the car on the passenger side rear in Dec. 2005 and has approx. 5000 miles on it. The failure occurred on I-95 in South Carolina. It was daytime and visibility was excellent. No road hazards were observed at any time. The car had recently been serviced and all tires were fully inflated. The car showed no signs of poor or erratic handling prior to the incident. There was a loud sound with an immediate complete failure of the tire. The car was brought under control with some difficulty. This incident occurred at a speed of 70 mph. The tire was examined by garage personnel in SC and in tallahassee, fl. In both cases, no sign of road hazard damage could be found. Further, there was general agreement that the tire had apparently failed due to a sidewall flaw where it met the tread. I have retained the damaged tire for your examination. You should note that in 2004, Bridgestone recalled a different size of this tire that was being used as a spare for a similar problem. I suspect that there is a larger problem that Bridgestone is covering up due to Firestone's well documented problems.

- Tallahassee, FL, USA