Friday evening while driving in 5:00 pm traffic I had a blowout on the interstate in my 2002 Honda CRV. It was the driver's side back tire which had the blowout. The car is about 1 1/2 years old with 26,000 miles on it. I was not hurt nor was the car damaged. The tire is a Bridgestone, I apologize that I do not know the exact model, and is the standard tire put on the car when it was sold to me new off the Honda lot. On Saturday morning I went to a tire shop to get a new tire and was informed that I had severe tread separation on the other 3 tires. The spare had as you can imagine no separation. The driver's front tire showed signs of severe separation, that even a novice like myself could notice. The gentlemen at the tire shop said that all four tires having tread separation could possibly be a defect from the factory. To make matters worse, in August 2003 I had a 20,000 mile check up at a local Honda dealer, which included tire rotation and inspection of the condition of the tire. In September 2003 I returned to the same Honda dealer to get the tires balanced. I am extremely concerned that the tire had a blowout but even more concerned that the mechanics did not notice the tread separation. I just thought I would pass along this bit of information.

- Deatsville, AL, USA

May 19, 2003 at 6:30pm - Bridgestone dueler H/T tire blew out; tire separated from tread and flew back and hit another vehicle. Took remaining parts of tire into Firestone and was told by a representative "I can warranty out the damaged tire as a defect, but cannot replace other three tires - they look fine". I explained the other tire was "fine" until it blew out on the highway, I was shocked that he was willing to warranty the damaged tire as a defect, but would not replace the other tires of the same make and model. I have pictures of the damaged tire and compared it to other blow outs which have caused fatal accidents and found my tire looks exactly like other blow outs. The police officer who showed up to the accident did not take a report but did say that even at high speeds or laying a spike strip down would not cause a blow out like this and suspected a defect.

- Oceanside, CA, USA