[imagesource: Reaction Unit SA]

If you’d asked me an hour ago if I thought filling a tyre with air was a dangerous activity, you would have been side-eyed.

I stand corrected.

In September 2005, a man in Eshowe was killed while repairing a tyre, which exploded and landed on his head. In 2016, a 39-year-old mechanic in Ireland died after the truck tyre he was inflating likewise exploded.

Conduct a quick Google search and you’ll find countless other examples.

The most recent being in Durban, this week, when a Ford Ranger bakkie was extensively damaged after a tractor tyre exploded while being filled with air at a service station in Verulam.

Thankfully, this time, no one was hurt.

Per IOL, Prem Balram, director of Reaction Unit SA, says that one of their officers was in the area when they heard the explosion.

“On investigation it was established that the driver of the Ford Ranger was in the process of filling air in a tractor tyre that was loaded at the rear of his bakkie when the explosion occurred.”

The explosion happens at the 14-second mark:

The guy filling the tyre must have had some serious luck on his side.

[source:iol]