Injuries from tire and wheel explosions during... [Ann Emerg Med. 1991] - PubMed - NCBI
For the period of 1978 through 1987, there were 694 reported injuries from explosions during tire servicing; 143 of them were fatal, resulting mainly from truck tires. Because the three data sources used different methods for case finding and covered different time periods, the actual number of such injuries was probably greater. Head injuries accounted for 78% of the deaths and 24% of nonfatal injuries. The proportion of injuries occurring during tire inflation declined from 51% in 1978 to 33% in 1987 (P less than .05). Fatal injuries involving single-piece rim wheels increased during the 1980s as multipiece rim wheels were phased out by the trucking industry.
It's not that I don't understand that pressure vessels can be dangerous. I have a healthy respect for scuba tanks under pressure. I own a tire store and a scuba compressor. I consider the tires to be much more likely to kill me than the scuba tanks. The statistics bear that out. All the clamor about unrecertified tanks is overdone. You are in a lot more danger of dying from a car accident while carrying full, unhydroed, old, "dangerous alloy" aluminum tanks than you could ever be from the tanks themselves exploding either on their own or in the accident. When diving old, never hydroed, pre 87 aluminum tanks in Mexico I am much more concerned about debris in the tank closing off my air supply than I am the tank exploding on me. I've watched the someone go feet up and lose their air. Unless they are mistreated when full of O2 they just don't explode after the fill. And I'm talking about "Bad alloy" AL tanks not steels or newer aluminums. The score so far is about 20 failures in 50+ years and 30 or 40 MILLION cylinders. Almost if not all of them were being filled. If you are afraid of those odds you should not be diving, or driving. And those are the odds for the "Bad" 6351 tanks. If you want to talk about dangerous pressure vessels, tires are worse than all the rest put together, and nobody thinks about them.
For the period of 1978 through 1987, there were 694 reported injuries from explosions during tire servicing; 143 of them were fatal, resulting mainly from truck tires. Because the three data sources used different methods for case finding and covered different time periods, the actual number of such injuries was probably greater. Head injuries accounted for 78% of the deaths and 24% of nonfatal injuries. The proportion of injuries occurring during tire inflation declined from 51% in 1978 to 33% in 1987 (P less than .05). Fatal injuries involving single-piece rim wheels increased during the 1980s as multipiece rim wheels were phased out by the trucking industry.
It's not that I don't understand that pressure vessels can be dangerous. I have a healthy respect for scuba tanks under pressure. I own a tire store and a scuba compressor. I consider the tires to be much more likely to kill me than the scuba tanks. The statistics bear that out. All the clamor about unrecertified tanks is overdone. You are in a lot more danger of dying from a car accident while carrying full, unhydroed, old, "dangerous alloy" aluminum tanks than you could ever be from the tanks themselves exploding either on their own or in the accident. When diving old, never hydroed, pre 87 aluminum tanks in Mexico I am much more concerned about debris in the tank closing off my air supply than I am the tank exploding on me. I've watched the someone go feet up and lose their air. Unless they are mistreated when full of O2 they just don't explode after the fill. And I'm talking about "Bad alloy" AL tanks not steels or newer aluminums. The score so far is about 20 failures in 50+ years and 30 or 40 MILLION cylinders. Almost if not all of them were being filled. If you are afraid of those odds you should not be diving, or driving. And those are the odds for the "Bad" 6351 tanks. If you want to talk about dangerous pressure vessels, tires are worse than all the rest put together, and nobody thinks about them.
