New process helps innocent spike strip victims

On April 19, 2012, Neal Johnson was traveling west on I-84 near Hood River, Ore., when, in quick succession, two State Police cars flew past. Johnson saw a commotion up ahead. “When I got closer, I could see one of the policemen pulling something off the road with a rope” she said. Both lanes ahead were blocked. She came to a halt and, after waiting several minutes, a State trooper approached and told her she had two flat tires. What Johnson had seen the trooper pull from the road turned out to be a spike strip. The tire deflation device was thrown across a lane of traffic to stop a car that was leading the police on a high-speed chase. Johnson also ran over the strip and punctured both tires on the passenger side of her four-wheel-drive SUV.

Thanks to a new agreement between State of Oregon and Les Schwab Tire Centers, getting Johnson’s tires fixed was easy. The trooper called Les Schwab, dialing a number printed on a “Spike Strip Damage Solution” card all troopers now have in their patrol cars. Les Schwab towed Johnson’s vehicle to the nearest shop in Hood River and outfitted Johnson’s SUV with four new tires. She was on her way within an hour with no money out of pocket. She was entitled to pro-rated reimbursement for the punctured tires and got credit for the other two nearly-new tires on her SUV, so the tire swap came out even. Behind the scenes, Les Schwab sent a bill for reimbursement to the State of Oregon Risk Management department.

In the past, Johnson’s experience would have been much different. Getting the tires fixed would have been her problem. Once that was done, she would need to figure out how to submit a claim to State of Oregon Risk Management. After two or three weeks, Risk would evaluate the claim and send her a settlement check. While these incidents typically happen only about once a year, this was a frustrating situation for the both the officers and the motorists involved.

The State Police began using the Stop Stick brand of tire deflation devices in 1996. The strips use hollow quills that penetrate the tire and act as valves, releasing air at a safe, controlled rate.

This article was submitted by Greg Hopkins of the Oregon State Procurement Office.