Heheheh...it was a rear tire on my FWD 1997 Pontiac Grand Am, which is about the least dangerous tire to blow at that speed. Something taller or RWD or it being a front tire could have been disaster.

The tire that had the belt rupture @ 70 mph was a rear tire on my RWD Regal... And my sister and her kids were in the back seat. Luckily I used to take my cars out on the driving range where I trained people to drive ambulances. I always wanted to know how my vehicles would behave in emergency situations. I just kept a firm grip on the wheel, took my foot off the accelerator, and gradually coasted to a stop on the shoulder.

I've had only 3 flats in my life and they all happened within a 2 month period. One was a nail the other 2 were torn valve stems. Then I got a letter 4 months later stating that the valve stems were being recalled:thumbdown:

2/15/09

I've had 2 flats in the last 8 months. One was on my secondary car , a 1986 Jaguar XJ6 with 137K miles and the other on my motorcycle ( 1982 Yamaha Vision 550 RJ) Both vehicles have older tires approaching the end of their service lives. Both punctures were from sheetrock screws. Before the flats I had removed the spare tires from my cars for a while but after reading and finding that the weight savings benifit had a minimal effect on fuel economy I put them back. The motorcycle tire was a slow leak that I found when checking the tires before riding. The flat on the XJ6 wasn't noticed till the ride and handling went sour so I had to pull off the road and change to the spare.
The punch line is you need to carry a spare and jack or at least other means to fix flats.
best wishes, low&slow

While driving? Probably close to 10 years ago. By the time I got off the bridge (Vestal, NY, if you know the town, you know the bridge) to a safe place to stop the sidewall was done. I finished that business trip, another 350+ miles, on three studded snows and a temporary spare.
Coming out to discover the tire had gone down in the hours since I last drove? Maybe 5 years ago. Yet another piece of carpentry fastener, screw, nail, whatever.
On my bicycles? Too darned frequently, maybe five flats and one blow-out in the two years since I resumed pedaling regularly.

I have gone as much as several years without a flat tire, then had several in a short period of time. One day, a couple years ago, I had to change a tire (steel belt was protruding). Put on my spare, drove about half way home from work and the spare blew out while I was going about 65 or so. The tire was probably about as old as the car (1984 Lincoln Town Car). Had to get towed to a tire store. (I had been planning on going there anyway.) Didn't replace the spare...then it blew in the trunk a couple days later.

never had one personally but i started driving late. only been on the road maybe 2.5 years now.

last time my family had one was ages ago.

Last one that required a roadside tire change was ~3 years ago (ended up requiring 4 new tires because you can't put 1 new tire on an AWD subaru).

Last spring I came out once to find my Comet in the garage with a flat tire(with a nail in it), but it had been 1-2weeks since I'd driven it so I don't know how slow the leak was.

I've picked up a least 1-2 slow leaks in the last few years.

In my ~14 years of driving I've probably had about a dozen flats.

A couple months ago, I got caught in a snowstorm, and had to drive. I hit a curb, and punctured the sidewall, and yesterday, I had a nail removed from my tire. I still carry only fix-a-flat.
I'm a hard-headed Airies.