Tire Explosion Leads to Product Liability Lawsuit

By May 9, 2012July 15th, 2019Uncategorized

A West Chicago native, Phil Teasauw, filed a lawsuit against Tire Services Co., a Palos Hills company, because a tire exploded next to him nearly two years ago while he was working on replacing it. Teausaw filed the product liability suit in Chicago’s Cook County Circuit Court against the company which sells used tires, particularly tires that have been either refurbished or retreaded.

Teausaw’s suit states that he was working on replacing a tire for his own employer, ILoca Services Inc., in Naperville, on April 8, 2010. He was putting the tire on a tractor-trailer, when the sidewall of a retreaded tire acquired by ILoca from Tire Services, Co. exploded. He had just finished filling the tractor-trailer sized tire with air when the sidewall burst, leaving him with injuries the suit describes as both permanent and severe.

According to Teausaw’s filing, such a defect indicated that the tire was problematic when ILoca bought it from Tire Services in 2009, and that Tire Services should have been aware it was unsafe. As such it was not only inappropriate, but dangerous and irresponsible for them to sell the tire. Tire Services Co. was not available for comment as of Tuesday morning, May 8th.

The lawsuit claims that Tire Services is liable for negligence, two counts of breach of implied warranty for selling an obviously unsafe product, and seeks damages of at least $200,000 to help Teausaw deal with his extensive injuries. The sum that Mr. Teausaw is seeking is well within the range of a medical injury award where the injury was caused by a defective product purchased in good faith from a company that implied a warranty of proper function when they sold it, in this case, to his employers.