Tire blowout - long

[Tdog]

I had a scary experience Monday - - I had a blowout on a rear tire while driving on the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, about 4 miles from the north shore. We were headed into New Orleans for a doctor痴 appointment, driving in the left lane just under 70 mph. Yeah, that痴 a little over the speed limit, but I was driving with traffic. For those who are not familiar with this bridge, it is 24 miles long, 2 lanes of traffic each direction - - there is no shoulder, left or right. Luckily, I managed to stay in my lane & get it slowed down OK. It was just after 8 AM, so we were in the teeth of rush hour traffic. The Causeway does not allow you to stop for flats - - you are supposed to run on the rim to the next crossover - - which for us was about a mile away. Now that was the scary part - - we are crawling along at 2 mph & all the commuters are busting their butts to get to work in the least amount of time. I called the Causeway Police to tell them our problem & within a few minutes a patrol care came up behind us & at least served as a buffer between us & all the crazed commuters trying to get to work.

Driving that distance after the blowout was rough - - the tire, of course & flops around the rim with every revolution - - it snagged the edge of some trim & got hung up as the rim continued to rotate. It made some gawd-awful sounds as it did its damage, but there痴 no way I could see what is going on.

We got to a crossover & shortly a well-equipped Causeway truck appears. Two guys take off the ruined tire & put the donut on for me - - no charge. I was fortunate that the rim was not ruined - - got the new tire mounted on it yesterday.

I致e owned the car since April & the tire, a Michelin, had about 26k on it. On inspection, the tire shop did not see anything that would have caused the problem. The car had some visible damage & some hidden. Some trim around the tire well was torn off, the front edge of the bumper was displaced, & the shock was bent a little. Luckily, my comprehensive auto insurance will cover the damage [but not the tire]

Could have been a lot worse - - we didn稚 hit anyone, no one hit us, I didn稚 hit the guard rail. I feel pretty lucky.

Jack

 

[Bird]

Jack, I guess we've only been across that long bridge once and that was in 1973 in a new Winnnebago Brave motohome. Even though I've been fortunate enough to never have a flat tire or breakdown in a place that I could not easily get out of traffic, I always hated driving in such locations just because of that possibility.

 

[tallyho8]

You can read my experience on the Causeway Here

 

[Phils]

You can read my experience on the Causeway Here

WOW tallyho8!! What an experience!! I've been across that bridge numerous times. Dang but you were lucky to not lose your truck. And the jerk that threw the cig butt out his window never even knew what he caused and is still doing it today, I'm sure.

Phil

 

[Tdog]

Tally, your Causeway experience was worse than mine. I have lived on the north shore for 15 years and commuted daily for the 1st 10 years, & never had an incident till last Monday.

Just curious - - did you have insurance that covered any of your loss?

Jack

 

[tallyho8]

Just curious - - did you have insurance that covered any of your loss? Jack

Yes, I carry the maximum coverage that Louisiana law allows. However, it did still not cover everything. The Causeway Police encouraged me to clean up the mess. We had to go to the barn and round up a bunch of friends and rent a large Ryder truck to put the wet half-burned hay and trailer frame in. I paid each of them and the insurance company reimbursed me for the hay, the clean-up crew and $500 on the trailer. The trailer was borrowed and this is where I learned that insurance will only pay $500 for a trailer that is not in your name regardless of it's worth or damage. If you ever borrow or loan a trailer, this is good to know. Luckily, the old trailer wasn't worth much more so I only had to put up a few hundred more dollars to pay my friend for the loss of his trailer. I'm glad this didn't happen to my friends $45,000.00 horse trailer that I borrowed once. I don't borrow expensive trailers anymore.

 

[tallyho8]

Tally, your Causeway experience was worse than mine. I have lived on the north shore for 15 years and commuted daily for the 1st 10 years, & never had an incident till last Monday. Jack

I wish that was the only bad experience I had, but I had one other bad hay-hauling experience a year later. I had a trailer load of hay all tied down well (but not well enough). When you get on the Southbound causeway it is quite a rough ride with a trailerload of hay. The road has a lot of whoop-de-doos for the first few miles and this caused a bale of hay to loosen up and work its way out the pile. The bale of hay hit the road at 55 miles per hour and instantly fell apart and turned into a grassy roadway which would not have damaged a car that rode over it but a car that was a good distance behind me hit his brakes hard when he saw the hay on the road. The car behind him stopped in time but the third car back ran into the others because he wasn't paying attention. This third driver wound up suing me and my insurance company paid for all the damages and raised my rates. I know I was partially responsible for this wreck but I don't feel that I should have been held totally responsible since the first cars were able to stop and someone not paying attention rammed into them on a clear straight road in broad daylight.
Just today I hauled a load of hay back from Lumberton MS but I didn't go over the Causeway.

 

[Tdog]

Tally,
You are right about that southbound side of the bridge. That is the original span - - the 'new' one, built about 1965, is northbound. If you ever want to check if your shocks are worn, just get on the causeway headed to New Orleans. whoop-de-doo is a great way to describe it.

Too bad the 1st drivers to get to your spilled bale did not recognize it for what it was instead of slamming on their breaks. While drivers are responsible for securing their loads, I used to see stuff on the bridge all the time, especially grass sod.

I don't blame you for by-passing the Causeway on your last trip.

Jack

 

[tallyho8]

IT GOT ME---AGAIN!!! Yesterday I hauled my last load of hay home to stock up for the winter. On my way back from Lumberton MS Interstate 59 was closed for the day because an 18 wheeler loaded with acetylene cylinders crashed, turned over and burned. So I had a choice of riding on the detour on Hwy 11 in bumper to bumper traffic going 5 miles an hour for 20 miles or taking the dreaded Causeway. I opted for the Causeway. I went 80 miles from Lumberton to the Causeway at 60 mph then parked right before getting on the Causeway, checked all my tires and wheels for air and heat and checked my ratchet-down tie straps for tightness and they couldn't even be tightened one click and everything else looked great. Paid my $12 toll and started across the Causeway at only 50 mph because of all the whoop-de-doos. When I just passed the last crossover before the South shore, a passing car signaled that my trailer had a flat. You can't stop on the Causeway so I slowed to 35 mph and drove the remaining 4 miles off the bridge and pulled over to change the tire. Luckily the other wheel on that side bore the weight and everything went well. I checked my tie down straps again and had to tighten each one over 10 clicks because of the way the bumpy Causeway made the hay settle. Luckily the rim was not even damaged but the tire that had been in perfect condition was no more. Next time I'm going 90 miles out of my way and taking Interstate 55.

 

[Tdog]

Well Tally, let me know the next time you are going to use the Causeway southbound and I'll stay home that day!

Jack