II GERMANY TYRE RESEARCH
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A major accident occurred in Dortmund six years ago when an artic's front nearside tyre burst as the driver was overtaking and the trailer swung round, demolishing the central support pillar in a bridge. The bridge crashed down onto the motorway and several other vehicles crashed into the bridge debris. Since then the West German accident investigation department has conducted simulations of burst tyres. Scientists slit the front
nearside tyre of an artic with a knife and found that the front of the artic swung round 250mm — the height of the tyre. The steering was ineffective for three or four seconds. In this time the vehicle could swing three metres sideways, so the driver would have been unable to prevent the accident. One of the reasons put forward by the experts was that the artic had leaf springs. Verkehrs-Rundschau, October 8.