My uncle drives a '97 4runner with 235k miles and has always meticulously maintained his beloved SUV. Well, last weekend he was driving through his community at roughly 35 mph when suddenly his SUV lost control and flipped over several times without any warning, coming to rest on its hood (the story even made the local paper.) Fortunately he suffered only minor injuries and after the crash inspection they found that the tire rod snapped and buckled inward, causing the sudden loss of control and roll over. They also concluded that, if he were driving a more normal speed of, say, 55+, he probably would not have survived the crash.
The crash investigator also told my uncle that this is actually somewhat common with 10+ year old SUV's and, though most tire rods buckle outward (causing an obvious problem but no roll over), the ones that buckle inward often end up being crash death investigations and he was one of the lucky ones. He said he had investigated 3 similar SUV crashes due to snapped tire rods this year alone with all resulting in fatalities (none 4Runner). With all the being said, this obviously freaked me out given I drive an 8 year old 4Runner with 215k miles. Anyone ever heard of this and any suggestions as to preventing such an event? Again he's an absolute freak about maintaining his SUV and said told me the other day that he didn't notice any warning signs whatsoever during random inspections; he literally was just driving on a normal day as always and the next thing he knew the paramedics were pulling him out of his car upside down.
The crash investigator also told my uncle that this is actually somewhat common with 10+ year old SUV's and, though most tire rods buckle outward (causing an obvious problem but no roll over), the ones that buckle inward often end up being crash death investigations and he was one of the lucky ones. He said he had investigated 3 similar SUV crashes due to snapped tire rods this year alone with all resulting in fatalities (none 4Runner). With all the being said, this obviously freaked me out given I drive an 8 year old 4Runner with 215k miles. Anyone ever heard of this and any suggestions as to preventing such an event? Again he's an absolute freak about maintaining his SUV and said told me the other day that he didn't notice any warning signs whatsoever during random inspections; he literally was just driving on a normal day as always and the next thing he knew the paramedics were pulling him out of his car upside down.
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