Blowing a tire is not something you want to deal with, but it’s not always something you have control over. While you can mitigate your risk of a blowout with proper care and maintenance of your tires, like checking your tire pressure, sometimes bad luck just happens. Pot holes happen. Nails happen. Beer bottles happen. You can’t change luck, and you can’t fight luck. Our roadside emergency service team knows this. All you can do, is deal with the consequences of bad luck in a clear-headed, smart manner.
Step 1: Calm Down
This is the most obvious and, if we’re being honest, the hardest step in the process. You need to calm down. You need to have your wits about you to accomplish anything. That’s easier said than done, especially since blowouts happen instantaneously in many circumstances and can be loud and jarring. If your brain doesn’t naturally click into ready mode, give yourself a nudge with whatever will power you can muster.
Step 2: Do Not Swerve
When anything unexpected or frightening happens on the road, it can be a natural instinct to jerk the wheel. It may even be an involuntary gesture. It could be that the blowout makes you change directions also. Whatever the case, do not swing your wheel violently to compensate. Straighten out in as orderly and controlled manner as possible. This is crucial: overcompensating may lead to a serious, even fatal, accident. Get control of the wheel and do so gently.
Step 3: Pull Off to a Safe Spot
You may not be able to get far on a blowout, but you should be able to get off to the side of the road. If at all possible, get somewhere away from traffic. Bring your vehicle to rest in as safe a place as possible and turn on your hazard lights. Do not step out of your vehicle until you have sufficiently checked to see that there are not cars coming. This may seem like a no brainer, but in the heat of the moment, it can be easy to worry about your car and leave that diligence you showed at the cross walk as a kid behind.
Step 4: Call Paule Towing in Belleville
Now that you are safely on the side of the road, and not in immediate danger, give us a call. Not only do we offer towing services in St. Clair County and the Metro East, but we also offer tire changing service. If your vehicle has a blowout, we will get you back on the road. If you don’t have a spare, or your vehicle requires specialized tools, we can tow you to the tire provider of your choice. We also sell used tires, thought we do not mount and balance tires.
Give us a call at (618) 233-7464 for a tire change, towing, and more. Save our number in your contacts: you never know when you’ll need it for towing in Belleville, IL.