The Tire Retread Information Bureau (TRIB) has refuted a statement made in last Thursday's St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times that a truck tire retread was the culprit in a blow-out last week that caused a local dump truck to crash, killing three people.
In the article, the Times quoted a Florida Highway Patrol officer as saying "It's really not safe to have recaps on (a) dump truck."
"The facts are different," responded TRIB Managing Director Harvey Brodsky over the weekend in a letter to the paper. "Retreaded tires are safely used on all types of trucks, including dump trucks, and have a safety record that will stand up to new tires any day."
Some of the tires on the dump truck were bald, according to Brodsky.
And "the driver who was killed in the accident had a history of driving vehicles with defective equipment.
"To blame retreads for an accident that might have well been caused by underinflation or a number of other causes is the same as blaming a vehicle for an accident caused by a drunk driver. The blame is simply misplaced."
