How do nails get in tires on the road?

[raccoon]

I don't get it. It looks to me like if a nail was lying on the pavement, the car would just run over it. But somehow the nails get in the tires...I've had 2 in the past year.

Anybody out there know?

[shain from kane]

1. I've heard that front wheels pick up road hazards and throw them at such

force to puncture the back tires. You are not supposed to drive near the edge of the road where such hazards accumulate.
Statistically, supposedly the right rear tire is the tire that is most often flat.

[raccoon]

4. Both times it was the rear tire on the driver's side that went flat on

my car.

[lindisfarne]

9. I got one in the driver's side rear wheel a few months ago. It was a screw

I was using a friend's car; luckily, the tires are worn so I didn't feel too bad - car is being donated to a charity soon. Just had it patched.

[Ready4Change]

8. Front tire can make a nail tumble.

And the rear wheel just has unfortunate timing.

Or, the car ahead of you tumbles the nail, and your front tire gets it.

Or, toss a handfull of roofing nails, and a few will land point up. Where I used to live some roofers did a horrible job cleaning up and the entire neighborhood had flat tires for months.

[saltpoint]

2. I have no idea but I can very easily picture Karl Rove scattering them

across the pavements of the nation's blue states in the dead of night from a large gunnysack, laughing maniacally under a full moon.

[madmom]

3. here's a good one for ya...a couple years ago I had a slow leak

in one of my tires, took it to the garage to see what the problem was, they found the metal part of a ball point pen in the tire. I took my daughter back and forth to school then. Go figure,huh?

[unpossibles]

5. I always assumed it was like stepping on a rake

the head of the nail sticks up making the nail not lie flat, the tire hits it, which makes the nail pivot up into the tire. And short nails with wide heads could already be standing just by chance.

It's like stepping on a rake and having the handle rise up.

[thereismore]

6. I think the front tire lifts the nail up, and then it does a little dance,

and if the rear tire runs over it at just the right angle, it actually drives it in.

[Dead_Parrot]

7. That sounds good...

...I think there's an Ignobel in store for anyone who can work out the math!