If a tire fails and causes an accident as a result of the tread separation or some other form of failure, there is usually a case to be brought against the manufacturer of the tire for defectively designing and manufacturing that tire. There are also other areas of liability in a tire failure. The seller or retailer of the tire is often strictly liable for the tire being defective. It is not extremely well know that tires fail as a result of age, even when there is plenty of tread depth left on the tire.
Many vehicle manufacturers recommend against using a tire if it is more than six years old, regardless of the amount of wear left on the tire. The problem is that tire manufacturers often don't warn consumers of that, and they make it very difficult to figure out how old a particular tire is. Places sell tires that look brand new and have never been driven on, but that tire could be sitting around in the store or a warehouse for three, four, five years. In the lifespan of a tire, it could be far beyond that six year mark, and it is not uncommon for tread separations to occur because a tire is too old and no one has been warned about that.
