Blowout

Sometimes you can just tell it’s Monday…

On the way to work this morning, travelling along the dual-carriageway A11, I had a tyre blow out. At the time I was in the outside lane, having just started to overtake another car. A bang, a thud, and a wickedly loud sound like going over the rumble strips. Other than that, I don’t know what else was occurring – I was busy keeping the car safe, and working to get it over onto the hard shoulder.

I did so – and got it onto a decent bit of hard shoulder on one of the slip roads, which helped. However, as it was the driver’s-side tyre, I was wearing dark clothing, and it was 7.30am, I opted for getting the breakdown people to come and change the damn thing rather than attempting it myself. (Something which the recovery guy agreed was a smart move) The breakdown people were great – Tesco insurance/breakdown said the guy would be there by 8.40am, and 8.40, there he was. Ten minutes later, all done and back on the road to work.

All’s OK, although I’m currently on one of those crappy space-saver spare tyres where you’re not supposed to go above 50mph. That’s getting changed tomorrow, at which point all will be well again. I’m a touch narked because the front tyres only got replaced back in May, so I wouldn’t have expected one to die by now, but I’ll talk to the tyre place about that tomorrow.

As it is, the tyre had sounded a bit odd yesterday – to the extent that I’d stopped and checked it wasn’t flat, and also gone round it looking for a big stone in the treads, but hadn’t found any problems. But (I now assume) that was the point where it blew today, so I’ll know better next time it happens – if it ever does.

In a way, I’m kind of pleased with myself – if nothing else, it’s another thing checked off the “I’ve done that, and survived it OK” list of driving tasks. I managed to deal with the situation, handle it safely, and not be a danger to myself or anyone else. Yes, I’ve lost a hubcap along the way, and I’ll need to replace the tyre, but that’s nothing really. After all, it could have been one hell of a lot worse in so many ways…