Tyre blowout: what to do at speed

The first five seconds: grip, don’t brake

The instinct when a tyre bursts at speed is to stamp on the brakes. Resist it. Tyre manufacturers are consistent on this point: the sudden pull towards the failed side, combined with hard braking, can send the car into a spin. The failed tyre is already dragging the car off line — hard braking hands it the rest of the job.

Instead: grip the steering wheel firmly with both hands and keep the car pointing as straight as you can. Ease off the accelerator gradually and let the speed bleed away on its own — tyre manufacturers advise that a brief moment of steady throttle before you lift can help the car stabilise. Only once the car feels settled should you brake, and then gently. Switch the hazard lights on, and when the car is properly under control, indicate and start working your way left.

Getting off the road: aim for the safest place you can reach

Stopping on a motorway is normally an offence — Rule 271 of the Highway Code says you must not stop on the carriageway, hard shoulder, slip road, central reservation or verge except in an emergency or when told to stop. A burst tyre on a motorway is exactly that kind of emergency. The question is not whether you may stop, but where.

The Code ranks the options. Rule 275 calls a service area the safest place to stop; after that come lay-bys, emergency areas and hard shoulders — and the Code itself warns that hard shoulders “provide less protection than other places of relative safety because they are so close to high-speed traffic”. Rule 277’s first instruction follows the same logic: if the car can make it, leave at the next exit or pull into a service area. A wheel rim scuffed over a final half-mile at crawling pace is a far cheaper outcome than a dangerous stop.

On the hard shoulder: what the Highway Code says to do

Rule 277 sets the procedure. Stop as far to the left as possible, with the wheels turned to the left and enough room to get out — just beyond an emergency telephone if you can manage it. Keep the hazard lights on, and use sidelights in the dark or in poor visibility.

Then get everyone out by the side furthest from traffic, and behind the safety barrier where there is one — watching for the hazards the Code warns sit behind it: sudden drops, uneven ground and debris. Do not go back to the car, even if it is raining, cold or dark; wait behind the barrier for help. Animals stay in the vehicle, or under proper control on the verge in an emergency. And leave the warning triangle in the boot: on ordinary roads Rule 276 says to place one at least 45 metres behind the car, but on a motorway the Code says never to use one at all.

No hard shoulder? Emergency areas — and what to do in a live lane

On smart motorways the hard shoulder is often a running lane, or was never built. The stopping places instead are emergency areas: lay-by-sized refuges marked by blue signs carrying an orange SOS telephone symbol, often with orange surfacing. Signs along the carriageway count down the distance to the next one — if a tyre feels wrong, that countdown is your planning tool.

How far apart they sit depends on when the road was built. On newer and retrofitted stretches the commitment is an emergency area every three-quarters of a mile where feasible, and no more than a mile apart — at 60mph, typically one every 45 seconds or so. The earliest all-lane-running stretches were built with longer gaps, up to around a mile and a half by most accounts, which is why National Highways spent £390 million adding more than 150 extra emergency areas to stretches of the M1, M3, M4, M5, M20, M25 and M27 — a programme completed in March 2025 that left the all-lane-running network with around 50% more emergency areas than at the start of 2022.

If the car will not make it to the left and you cannot get out safely, Rule 277 is specific: stay in the vehicle, keep seat belts fastened and hazard lights on, and call 999 — ask for the police — or press the SOS button if the car has one. The control room can then close the lane behind you with a red X, which other drivers are forbidden by law from entering, and radar-based stopped vehicle detection on all-lane-running motorways is designed to spot a stationary car — National Highways’ stated aim is typically within about 20 seconds.

Who to call, and how to tell them where you are

The orange SOS phones are free and connect directly to National Highways control rooms. On conventional motorways they sit roughly a mile apart along the hard shoulder, with arrows on the marker posts pointing to the nearest one. Face oncoming traffic while you talk, so nothing approaches unseen, and tell the operator if you feel vulnerable or are travelling alone.

To pin down where you are, Rule 277 gives three options: quote the letters and numbers on the driver location signs or marker posts along the edge of the road, press the car’s eCall/SOS button, or read a position from a mobile mapping app. Rejoining is covered by Rule 278 — and the rules differ. From a hard shoulder, build up speed along the shoulder, indicate and wait for a safe gap. From an emergency area you MUST use the SOS phone and follow the operator’s advice before pulling out, because a lane may need to be closed for you — the Code’s capitalised “MUST” is legal wording, not a suggestion.

Why you should never change the wheel yourself on a motorway

Rule 277 is blunt: “DO NOT attempt repairs on your vehicle.” That includes a wheel swap, however quick you are with a jack. The Code calls the hard shoulder a place of relative safety, and the qualifier is doing real work — a wheel change puts you feet from live traffic, kneeling at wheel height, with your attention on the wheel nuts rather than the road. The RAC gives the same advice for dual carriageways: get out on the passenger side and call for professional help rather than reaching for the jack.

Wait behind the barrier and let the job come to you instead. That is what 24/7 breakdown recovery exists for — a trained fitter with a van between the traffic and the work, doing the swap that the Code tells you not to.

Afterwards: a new tyre fitted where the car stands

A burst tyre is finished — once the car is somewhere safe, it does not get driven on again. Even run-flat tyres, built to limp a limited distance after a loss of pressure, are not built to survive a blowout that has destroyed the casing. The practical answer is to bring the replacement to the car: Emergency roadside help runs 24/7, 365 days a year, with emergency dispatch within 30 minutes — call or WhatsApp 07904 781880. Prices are fully fitted, every fit carries a 6-month guarantee, and you can browse replacement tyres by size while you wait behind the barrier.

Then make the next one less likely. The classic cause of a blowout is sustained under-inflation — a soft tyre flexes more than it should, overheats and eventually fails structurally — with overloading and impact damage from potholes and kerb strikes close behind. A monthly pressure check takes minutes and removes the biggest risk: here is how to find and set the right pressures. Inspect any tyre that has hit a pothole or kerb hard, and while you are down at wheel level, check the tread while you are there.