Vlaisavich, who said she lives near ongoing construction at Bonanza and Sandhill roads, said a metal bolt gave her a flat tire and blowout on the freeway a few weeks ago. This day, Vlaisavich said, a nail embedded in the tire's wall was the culprit. These construction companies just leave their mess in the middle of the street. I don't even want to drive my car in certain areas now. Las Vegas' construction industry is continuing to boom, as the area topped the Census Bureau's list of fastest-growing metropolitan area in the country through the 1990s.
Many residents say the new communities are wreaking havoc on their tires.
Local tire experts say screws and nails left behind by construction crews are the leading causes of flat tires in Las Vegas. With the State Demographer's office estimating the addition of more than 400,000 people by 2010, the problem probably won't fade any time soon. Over half the customers with nails in their tires say they live in areas where there is construction going on. In Las Vegas, flat tires account for a higher percentage of service calls than other cities in its service area, according to a spokeswoman of the American Automobile Association's corporate office in San Francisco. Tow truck drivers who fix those flats don't tell the corporate office how the tires got that way, but the difference in the statistics is telling, Lisa Foster said.