On Tuesday night, the day after Christmas, friends and family gathered at Bad Azz Burrito in Saginaw, 39-year old Ryan Hansen's favorite restaurant. They were there to remember him.
"It just doesn't make any sense," said friend, Marc Humphrey. "The fact that the guy should have been doing a double back flip on his motorcycle and died is a guy that was airing up his tires (and died) doesn't make any sense to us."
Hansen died last Saturday. He was inflating a tire on his truck at his home in Azle when the tire exploded. Hansen was taken to Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth, where he died.
"It doesn't look like anything I've ever seen," said Humphrey. "I'm scared to air up my daughter's tire right now."
Family and friends don't know if the tire exploding was just a freak accident, or a faulty tire.
"It's not something you'd expect to hear inflating a tire," said Baker Ghanim, manager at The Tire Store Service Center in Bedford.
Ghanim said tires fail for three primary reasons: age, damage, and over inflating. He said, when in doubt, it's best to have a professional look at a tire.
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"We're looking for signs of damage, and separation in the tires, and wear, and things like that," said Ghanim. "To make sure the customer is going to be safe going down the road."
"That should never happen to anyone," Humprhey said. "He was a real good guy."
Hansen was single, but his family said he was very much a father-figure to his ex-girlfriend's 3 children, one of whom was with him, handing Hansen an air gauge, when the tire exploded. The child was not hurt.
